


Caliginis Arcanum - Secret of the dark

by stormy1990



Category: SixTONES (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 05:54:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9643448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormy1990/pseuds/stormy1990
Summary: For centuries Taiga needed no one by his side, because why should he? Humans were stupid and complicated after all and in his eternal life he still didn’t find any interest in them. But between all those he just approached to satisfy his thirst, there was suddenly someone worth his attention. Through this special encounter Taiga learned more about human emotions and got to know more about his own feelings as well on the way. But would he be able to learn about the bad sides as well? How deep were those new discovered emotions and how far would he go and how long would he search to get back what was about to get taken away from him?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in the JE_united fic exchange

 

The tower clock was heard twelve times and the few people which still dared to walk outside were slowly disappearing from the streets, the women closing the shutters of the windows, the last couple getting into a carriage and as the sound of the horse’s hooves weren’t heard anymore the town had finally fallen completely silent.

 

Hidden in the shadows of the clock tower’s pillars until now he finally stepped out the shadows. His pale skin and blonde hair looked almost white with the bright light of the full moon and a satisfied lopsided smile appeared on the boy’s lips thanks to the fear the humans showed at night since he had come to the town. Of course he didn’t aim for them. After all he was just going after those who deserved it. As long as no one attacked him, he wouldn’t attack innocent humans, but once provoked it wasn’t easy to stop his rage.

 

A sudden sound made him focus on a group of young men which had just stepped out of a tavern, now walking down the street, shouting and laughing. He crouched down and took a better look at the ones walking carefree to the night, not aware of the danger surrounding them. It wasn’t like he had to get close to see all their features clearly. He could even smell their blood up until there. Two of them were not of his interest at all, they were drunk and their blood was clearly affected by their regular consume and not of his liking at all. But the boy walking in the back seemed to be a completely different case. He was obviously the youngest, a sheepish smile on his lips when the others were addressing him directly. It didn’t need much analyzing to know that he was with them because they had invited him and he didn’t want to be rude, so he had accepted.

 

He took a deep breath through his nose, closing his eyes in pure excitement of the sweet scent filling his body.

 

“So innocent, so pure…” he whispered and a wide smile made his fangs suddenly appear. Surprised by his own excitement he moved his tongue over the sharp edge of his teeth before a low chuckle escaped him. He wouldn’t go after him, of course not. But he had never wished for a good person to become evil as much as at the very moment. Then he would have a perfect excuse to go after him. After all it wasn’t that often that he got so attracted by a human.

 

As shouting replaced the groups laughing, he finally spent them attention again. They had ran into another man or more like he had ran into them and seconds later they realized that he was a pickpocket and had stolen one of their purses. Now they were chasing after him and vanished into one of the small side alleys.

 

For a moment he felt a little bit disappointed, he would have liked to watch the boy a little bit longer, but as he had already decided to leave he froze as the scent of fresh blood hit him. Then there was a scream and one of the drunken men ran out the alley again and vanished into the night. But the others weren’t following him and even though he wasn’t actually in the mood to play hero, he decided to take a look. Regardless the height of the clock tower he just jumped off the building. Gracefully he landed on the roof of the next building as if the jump had been of one meter instead of around ten times the height. Following the scent of the blood he reached the alley a few rooftops later and found the second drunken man dead on the ground. So the pickpocket was definitely not in the mood to give back his plunder.

 

A small scream made him spent attention toward the next building and the scent of the boy’s sweet blood filled his body with excitement again, but this time it was even more intense, fresher! He jumped off the building and entered the warehouse from which he could sense them already. He moved in the shadows, invisible for every human. He could hear both their heartbeats, both too fast and the boy’s breathing pace extremely arrhythmic. As they finally came in sight he could see how the boy leant at the wall, blood dripping from a wound on his arm to the ground even though he tried to cover it with his hand. The other one was standing in front of him, a blood strained knife in his shaking hands.

 

Sheer panic showed in the boy’s eyes and as the other one launched himself at him again he could barely get away. He stumbled and fell, trying to crawl away from him. His fear made him even more interesting, after all he was not more than a weak human so it was just naturally for him to be afraid.

 

“Please, don’t…” he whimpered as the other one walked up to him again. The boy was shaking, tears of fear in his eyes and an unknown feeling suddenly took over him, was it sympathy? Whatever it was, it was strong enough to make him move the moment the other one was about to stab the boy. It just took him the tenth of a second to stand in front of him and of course the other one couldn’t react at all on his sudden appearance. It seemed like a really small movement of his arm, but it was strong enough to crush the other one into the wall on the opposite side of the room.

 

He turned towards the boy without a word and of course the latter looked up at him in shock, but to his surprise there was no fear in his eyes. Surprise yes, but no actual fear and he tilted his head in amusement.

 

“Did you lose your voice, boy?”

 

“No, I...thank you,” he stuttered before he tried to stand up, but flinched as he put his hurt arm to the ground. With the fresh blood dropping to the ground it was hard to stay calm. After all he hadn’t fed tonight. Sure he could have done so with the pickpocket, but then he would have exposed himself to the boy and even though a single look would be enough to make him forget everything he had just seen, he somehow didn’t want to use his tricks on him. Instead he ripped a part of his own sleeve off and crouched down in front of the boy who was still on his knees.

 

“Don’t worry, I am fine,” he tried to convince him in a shy voice, but he bandaged his arm anyways. He couldn’t stop from taking a deep breath though and he licked his lips before he ordered his body to move back obediently without attacking the boy.

 

“What’s your name?” What was even the meaning of asking? But somehow he wanted to know.

 

“Hokuto,” the boy replied immediately. There was still some kind of caution left in his eyes, but the way he stared up at his rescuer made clear that he actually wanted to ask a lot of questions, but maybe he sensed the danger and refrained from asking.

 

“Hokuto…” he repeated with a smile. This time he made sure that his fangs wouldn’t show and he turned away without another word.

 

“Can I ask for you name as well?” Hokuto asked and jumped up before the other one could leave.

 

“Will the knowledge of my name help you in any way?”

 

“Did it help you to know mine?”

 

The other one turned around to him again with a lopsided smile, yes he was definitely interesting.

 

“Taiga,” he replied and Hokuto bowed toward him once.

 

“Thank you for rescuing me, Taiga.”

 

“Trust me there is no reason to thank me.”

 

On that Hokuto shook his head and formed a smile, a bright one and Taiga was more than excited to see that the boy actually had little fangs. Of course not the same as his, but there was definitely something special about him or was it just Taiga who felt this way? After all he was just a normal human, a quite beautiful and slightly naive human, but still somehow special. There was no way that Hokuto wouldn’t have figured out right from the beginning that Taiga wasn’t just like him and still Taiga didn’t consider erasing his memory. Something about having someone know about his existence had made him feel some sort of pleasure which he didn’t feel in a long time, so why not let this feeling take over for a while?

 

***

 

Weirdly enough that he had found the boy interesting from the beginning, the feeling went almost out of control over the next days. Each time he fed, the scent of the boy’s blood crossed his mind. His smile, his fearless eyes while facing him, even though he had been so afraid of a normal human before. Why wasn’t he afraid of him?

 

It was the fifth day since their encounter and somehow Taiga had avoided the same spot again. Was he afraid that the boy could appear again and he wouldn’t be able to hold back this time? Normally he just took what he wanted, but on the other hand he didn’t want to take a human life easily, especially not his. Especially because he wanted him as he was, with a beating heart and his sweet blood and that was kind of difficult or more like impossible.

 

It was daytime now, which had the consequence that Taiga felt more than exhausted. Normally he would stay inside over the day, especially when it was sunny as it was today. But he felt restless and even though the sunlight made him weaker he didn’t care and walked among the humans. It wasn’t like he got burned by it, but if he stayed out for too long his body would suffer from an extreme dehydration which would make him unable to even move properly if he didn’t drink enough blood. Hidden under the hood of his grey coat, which reached to his ankles, he moved over the market place. Drained of his powers he thirsted for their blood even more, but without a safe escape through the shadows of the night he couldn’t hunt. After all he wasn’t immortal! It wasn’t easy to kill him that was for sure, but it wasn’t impossible.

 

“Stupid beggar, away from my booth or I am going to cut off your filthy hands,” one of the market people was heard and a kid not older than maybe nine years ran away before the man could get a hold of him. He hadn’t stolen anything, but it was obvious that he would need to do so or he wouldn’t survive for long. While most of the people spent attention towards the shouting man, Taiga grabbed an apple from one of the booths, but made sure to leave a coin for payment behind. How could he go after the bad people if he didn’t stand to his own principles? He followed the boy who had disappeared into one of the small alleys and found him searching through some trash cans. As he spotted Taiga he was ready to run away, but Taiga threw the apple towards him and he caught it with a questioning look. The boy looked ready to thank him, but as Taiga’s hood slid to the back a little bit and revealed his pale skin and his now almost completely red pupils through his thirst, the boy gasped and ran away. Exactly this was how they usually reacted towards him and they were more than right to fear him. He was in this town for a few months now and the people had sensed the danger which was hidden in their dark nights.

 

“Another beggar? We told you so many times to stay away from the market place!” Someone was heard behind him in a harsh tone. Taiga pulled the hood deeper into his face before he turned around. Two men in dark blue uniforms were standing in front of him, obviously in charge of keeping the order on the market place. Taiga bowed lightly and wanted to turn away from them. It wasn’t like he searched for any trouble, especially at daytime, but one of the men grabbed him by the arm to stop him.

 

“Not so fast, we are going to make sure that you have not stolen anything from the market, take off your cloak,” the other one ordered and stepped forward as Taiga didn’t make a move to follow his order.

 

“Didn’t you hear him? He said take it off!” The one holding on to him ripped his hood down, but gasped and let go of him the next moment. Everything on him normally shocked the humans and if he would have touched him directly and not the sleeve of the coat his cold body temperature would have already chased them away. They weren’t used to people with such pale skin and blonde hair. But which they feared the most, as the boy before did as well were his eyes. Not just now that they showed how thirsty he was, they usually had a kind of disturbing effect on them with the dark red color of his pupils, which got brighter as thirstier he got.

 

“What the hell are you?” The other one stuttered as he stepped back with shaking legs and Taiga made a step forward to scare them away. After all he couldn’t just vanish like this at daytime. He wasn’t strong enough with the daylight to move as fast as at night. But unfortunately the one in front of him wasn’t as scared as the other one and pulled out a gun. He pulled the trigger with shaking hands and without any kind of warning. Taiga moved as fast as he could, but as expected not fast enough. Luckily he succeeded in vanishing in the next alley and the two officers didn’t try to chase him, maybe afraid that he would ambush them in the narrow backstreets. But truth was that he wasn’t in the shape to attack anyone. He cursed as he slid down on a wall a few streets later, too exhausted to keep running. This wasn’t really what he had expected when he searched for distraction and he breathed in sharp as he put his hand over the gunshot wound on his stomach. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, it would barely take minutes to heal, but it was daytime and he was weakened already, he would need to feed to be able to heal properly, but in his condition there was no way he could even hunt down anyone except for little kids maybe and that wasn’t really what he wanted to resort to. He tried to get up again, biting his lip in pain while trying hard to leave his fangs inside to not hurt himself even more.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

Taiga wasn’t sure if he was the best or the worst person to find him, but he relaxed anyways and slid down to the ground again as Hokuto approached him slowly.

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

“Seriously now? This should be my question. I was just walking over the market place when I heard a shot and heard two officers freak out about some creature lurking around the backstreets.”

 

“Oh and you thought it would be a good idea to take a look, after you almost got killed by a human already?”

 

“You didn’t kill me back then, why would you now?”

 

Taiga stared at him completely perplex for a moment. It was his tone which confused him and his own reaction as well. They were arguing like they would know each other for an eternity after just meeting one time. What was going on? Taiga wasn’t the type to even bother talking to humans normally and here he was shouting at Hokuto who scolded him like he wasn’t afraid at all. But truth was he really wasn’t afraid, was he? Hokuto stepped even closer trying to help Taiga up, but the latter shifted back with a dangerous growl from somewhere down in his throat. Hokuto just raised an eyebrow at him instead of feeling threatened.

 

“What?”

 

“Who said I needed help?”

 

“Oh maybe the bleeding wound on your stomach? Or the fact that you can’t even stand up on your own anymore?”

 

“Leave!” Taiga hissed at him and tried to get to his feet again, but failed once more. Hokuto tried to get a grip on his arm to prevent him from falling again, but Taiga slapped it away and let out a furious hiss with his fangs showing threatening. He had tried not to get aggressive, but blood was all he could think about and still he refused to hurt the boy. So his body was fighting his mind and it was ripping him apart. “I said leave!” He growled again, but Hokuto didn’t even seem to be taken aback by his reaction or his fangs. Had he known of his identity right from the start? Then why wasn’t he afraid of getting killed?

 

“And I told you that I won’t leave you here! Now let me help you,” Hokuto reached out for him again and dragged him to his feet, but the next moment Taiga slammed him into the wall, bright red eyes staring at him dangerously as his hood slid completely too the back and his elbow pressed against his throat making it hard for the other one to breathe. The boy’s heartbeat was just slightly faster, compared to the fear he had shown a few nights before it was nothing at all.

 

“Why are you so calm?” Taiga asked as his eyes slowly wandered down to his neck, his lips almost touching his skin as he leant forward without even wanting to.

 

“Do I have a reason to be afraid?”

 

“Depends on what you are scared of?”

 

“Dying I guess.”

 

“Then yes, you should be afraid.”

 

Hokuto let out something like a chuckle on that, but choked as Taiga added more pressure on his throat again.

 

“I assure you that it will be the last thing you will ever do if you dare to make fun out of me,” Taiga threatened him, but Hokuto just stared back at him, this time with a serious expression.

 

Hokuto was about to answer something as Taiga’s body gave up on him and he sank to the ground. Hokuto moved with him, holding on to his shoulders so that he wouldn’t hit the ground too hard. He was still conscious, but definitely not for long with the sun burning down on them merciless like this.

 

Hokuto pulled Taiga’s hood back up to cover as much of his skin as possible before he lifted him up in his arms. Taiga didn’t even try to fight back this time, noticing that every try to make him leave him alone would just end in getting exhausted even faster. He shut his eyes and let the other one carry him away. Getting help from a human wasn’t really what he had planned for, especially not from Hokuto, because he had tried to stay away exactly from him. But maybe there was a good reason that he failed in keeping his distance. Maybe he had finally found someone worth sharing his secrets with.

 

***

 

Taiga didn’t even remember when he had passed out, but now the heat and the bright sunlight was gone, but it couldn’t be night. He knew when it was night time, he could feel it. It was still bright outside even though no sunlight reached the place he was at. The only light came from a small gas lamp which was on the floor next to him. It wasn’t just dark, but also cold, extremely cold, which was of his advantage, because through both factors he could regenerate way faster. The wound was already better, but he would need to drink blood after all to get back to full strength. As he sat up he realized that he was lying on an ice block, just a blanket between him and the clear ice. Not that he actually minded the cold, he was used to it and it actually helped him recovering from the dehydration of his body. As he finally spent more attention to his surroundings as he sat up he spotted Hokuto on the ground next to the lamp, muffled in a thick jacket. The boy was asleep and Taiga jumped to the ground and approached him right away. Out of instinct he crouched down in front of him and took a deep breath. The sweet scent of his blood made his fangs appear right away and he moved closer to his neck, his lips almost touching his skin again, but then the boy moved and he backed off. But he still remained close, so close that Hokuto flinched as he opened his eyes, finding Taiga just a few inches away from his face.

 

“Don’t scare me like this,” Hokuto scolded him, but Taiga just formed a lopsided smile on his reaction.

 

“So you can actually be afraid of me,” he replied kind of proud, but Hokuto just rolled his eyes.

 

“I would be afraid of everyone who tried to crawl into my face while I am sleeping.” Hokuto paused and looked up at Taiga with a sudden worried look and Taiga knitted his eyebrows trying to read his expression. The next moment Hokuto moved his hand up to his own neck and that was when Taiga escaped a chuckle and he stood up, moving through the room.

 

“Don’t worry I didn’t bite you...yet,” he added with a smirk, but again Hokuto didn’t seem afraid. “What is this place anyways?”

 

The whole room was filled with ice blocks and a lot of different boxes between them. “This is the cool warehouse of this town. The ice gets delivered from the mountains and we store provisions for most of the stores in the town down here.”

 

“We?”

 

“I actually work here, lucky for you or I wouldn’t have been able to get you in here without anyone noticing.”

 

“Lucky for me?” Taiga turned around to him again as the other one finally got up. He was shaking and which human wouldn’t with the low temperature in the room. Taiga approached him fast and stopped so close in front of him again that the other one tried to make a step to the side, but Taiga put his hand to the wall so that the younger one couldn’t get away. “It is also lucky for me that a naive human like you locks himself in a room with me. Maybe you are just too stupid to feel afraid?”

 

“Or maybe my fascination is bigger than my fear?”

 

This statement actually made something jump inside Taiga. He moved his hand up to the boy’s face and Hokuto breathed in sharp as his cold fingertips touched his skin.

 

Taiga had never experienced what it was like to be human. He hadn’t been turned. He had been a vampire from time immemorial, whenever that had been. Humans had never been fascinating to him, they were stupid, naive and easily killed. But everything had changed now, with just another of those unworthy creatures. Taiga could feel the cold of the ice and also the warmth of Hokuto’s breath on his face, but he had never bothered trying to feel it, to turn it into something special. The sweet scent of his blood had attracted him right away, but now it wasn’t just that. His fearless eyes, his calm heartbeat and his warm skin under his fingertips made him actually feel something he had never felt before.

 

“Do it, I know you want to know how it feels,” Taiga said as he moved his hand away again, but Hokuto hesitated for a moment and looked away as he realized how much he was staring at the other one. Taiga made another step forward, now so close that he placed his elbow next to the boy’s head.

 

“Not afraid, but shy?”

 

Silence followed for a moment before Hokuto dared to look up at him again. His cheeks had been flushed from the cold already, but Taiga could tell on the sound of his heartbeat that he was right. Yet Hokuto finally moved his hand up to the latter’s face, but paused a moment before it actually touched his skin. He could feel the cold already and as he carefully placed it on the boy’s cheek he held his breath for a moment.

 

“How does it feel?”

 

“Cold,” Hokuto replied in a low voice, but as he tried to take his hand away again, Taiga put his own over his so that it remained on his face.

 

“Just cold? I heard you humans can feel so much unnecessary things, so tell me more about what you are feeling.”

 

“I- Something is...missing,” Hokuto stumbled which made Taiga look at him with an even more intense stare. “It is not just the cold, but somehow, I am not sure how to explain it, humans have this feature to react to someone’s touch, each and every one in their own way, but you seem like it doesn’t matter if it is a human who touches you or a leave falling from a tree.”

 

“That’s not good, is it?” Taiga asked playful as he leant forward eliminating the last space between their bodies. Hokuto’s breath on his face came out in hasty pants now as he shifted impatiently.

 

“No, not good at all,” he brought out between his heavy breathes and leant his head back against the wall as Taiga tilted his head to move his lips down to the boy’s neck.

 

“Maybe I should do something about that then. How about I try to show you how I feel when you can’t sense it?”

 

Hokuto nodded almost unnoticeable before he closed his eyes as Taiga’s cold lips finally touched his skin. As a groan escaped his lips right away, Taiga’s lips curled into a smile and he backed off a little bit just to have a better look at the younger one. It was actually more than hard for him to stay calm and not rip the other one apart, but Hokuto could call himself lucky, because he was too fascinating for Taiga to waste his life like this.

 

Suddenly Taiga grabbed Hokuto by the front of the shirt and Hokuto realized fast enough what was going on to catch the other one as he sank to his knees.

 

“You are still too weak,” Hokuto said as he looked down to Taiga’s wound and bit his lip, knowing that it wouldn’t heal like this.

 

“I’m fine,” Taiga replied as he tried to get up again, but Hokuto held him down on his shoulders, sitting down in front of him on his knees. He stripped out of his jacket and pulled the collar of his shirt as much as possible away from his neck.

 

“What?” He asked as Taiga stared at him in disbelieve. Was the younger one really that naive or was he just not treasuring his life?

 

“I don’t want to drink from you,” Taiga said in such an indignant voice that it surprised himself. Hokuto rolled his eyes on that and backed off just to have a better look at the other one.

 

“Shall I feel honored or offended by that?”

 

“How about feeling lucky?” Taiga replied irritated, because truth was he would love to take his invitation, but could he stop? Would he really be able to not kill him? He wasn’t necessarily killing while feeding, but the situation was different now that he was wounded. And the fact that Hokuto’s blood was the sweetest he had come across in centuries didn’t make it any easier. As he looked up at Hokuto again he could see some weird disappointment in the latter’s eyes which confused him even more.

 

“Could it be that you were searching for me on purpose?” Taiga asked and the way Hokuto’s eyes widened for a moment before he shook his head told him everything he needed to know.

 

“Don’t even try, I can feel when you are lying. Just one heartbeat of yours tells me more than all your words will ever be able to.”

 

The boy lowered his eyes on that and Taiga heard how his heartbeat got faster while his cheeks turned slightly pink. Embarrassment was a human feature Taiga didn’t really understand, but it was entertaining him a lot he couldn’t deny that. Hokuto flinched as the other one put his cold fingers under his chin to make him look up again.

 

“I can’t guarantee for your life, just so you know,” Taiga admitted, but instead of feeling even more nervous the boy just nodded and he moved his head to the side again as Taiga finally leant forward. Taiga wouldn’t ask again, he was sure that the boy knew what could happen to him and it was not just dying. It was Taiga who decided if he wanted to turn him, but again Hokuto wasn’t a bad person so why would he? If he accidently killed him then this could be a rescue plan and he wasn’t sure if he would need it after all as the scent of his blood made him lose his mind already before even tasting it. His fangs were out already, about to hurt his own lip as he bit down on it in his last attempt to calm down.

 

Hokuto let out a sharp breath as Taiga grabbed him by the hair the moment he buried his teeth in his neck. At first the pain was bearable, but when Taiga shifted his weight and pushed Hokuto against the wall, almost sitting on his lap, the pain changed. His neck started burning and he closed his eyes while taking deep breathes to not scream out. Out of reflex he clenched his hands into Taiga’s sleeves, but he didn’t try to push him away.

 

As expected the taste of Hokuto’s blood made everything go blank in Taiga’s mind and he couldn’t control his own actions anymore. Taiga’s grip on him tightened after a while and the pain made it hard to even stay conscious, which finally made Hokuto take action. He tried to push Taiga away, but in response the latter pushed him back into the wall with an unbelievable strength.

 

Suddenly getting scared on the thought of dying, Hokuto panicked. Had he hoped that Taiga would be able to stop? Had he be that calm because of that? He couldn’t really tell, but now he could at least tell that he wanted him to stop, so he had to make him snap out of it.

 

“Please ,stop!” He begged as he tried to push Taiga away again, but the result was the same and Taiga growled dangerously before he bit down on his neck even deeper, making the latter scream out.

 

“Stop!” He shouted, this time struggling with all his might, but Taiga seemed completely swallowed by his thirst and didn’t react at all.

 

“Taiga, please stop!” He let out in a weak voice as he hadn’t enough energy left to struggle and as if struck by lightning on the sound of his name, Taiga pushed himself away from him with so much force that he hit with his back against one of the ice blocks. He was breathing hard, the blood running down from the corner of his lips towards his chin. He wiped it away with his thumb before licking it off, but now that he had satisfied his needs the taste wasn’t as intense and tempting as before anymore.

 

“Idiot, I told you this was a bad idea!” Taiga scolded him even though it seemed like he wanted to scold himself even more for losing control.

 

Hokuto gave him a brief smile in response instead of getting angry, because why should he? He had said that it was okay. Taiga jumped forward the next moment as Hokuto lost consciousness and slid to the side.

 

“Is carrying the other one around town going to be our new habit, or what?” Taiga asked while lifting Hokuto up in his arms. After all he wouldn’t get better down here in the cold and now that Taiga’s wound was as good as healed and he felt way stronger again he decided to not just leave the boy behind. Even though he should! What was the meaning in helping a stupid human?

 

But just one look at the boy’s calm face made it clear that if he left him behind it would end up with him thinking about him the whole time again, so why not keep him close, maybe he could learn more about the humans. And even if he would like to deny it, his personal interest in the boy was making him feel excited about how this was going to end.

 

***

 

Hokuto woke up with more than just a light headache. He actually felt like he had died once and just got revived, but on that thought he sat up panicked, which was of course a mistake as he fell back with a groan again and closed his eyes for a moment to make everything stop spinning.

 

“Why so jumpy? Is the bed not comfortable enough?”

 

On Taiga’s voice he wanted to jump up again, but this time he was able to stop his body before it moved and he opened his eyes again to scan the dark room for the source of his voice. He didn’t had to search for long and found Taiga sitting on a wooden bar near the ceiling of the building which he could finally identify as the clock tower through the bell hanging over Taiga.

 

Hokuto tried to sit up again, but this time more careful and he realized that he was really lying on a bed. It was pretty old and Hokuto didn’t even need to ask if it was Taiga’s, because he obviously didn’t need one, but maybe the clock warden had used it over the last years before the clock system got renewed to an automatic one.

 

Reminded of that Hokuto looked up to the back of the clock and at the exact same moment the clock hand reached the top and Hokuto covered his ears as the bell rang 4 times.

 

“Damnit, being so close to the bell up there, you should be deaf by now!” Hokuto said as he looked up to Taiga who hadn’t even flinched on the sound. “Wait, is it four o’clock in the morning?”

 

Taiga just nodded, but Hokuto seemed more than confused on which Taiga tilted is head and looked at him questioning.

 

“Did you bring me here right after...you know, ehm the incident,” Hokuto asked stumbling and Taiga nodded again, now getting to his feet.

 

“That doesn’t make sense at all. With the bell being that loud I would normally wake up each hour, especially at midnight with it ringing so often. Why didn’t I wake up? Did you...? Am I…” Hokuto turned pale while he moved his hand slowly to his neck to find the marks which Taiga had left on his skin. But then Taiga started laughing and as Hokuto looked up to him the boy jumped, making Hokuto almost jump up. Out of reflex he wanted to help him, to catch him! Because the ceiling of the tower was about five meters high down to the place where the bed was, but Taiga landed gracefully in front of him and Hokuto needed a moment to realize that his jaw had dropped open.

 

“No I haven’t and no you are not!”

 

“What?” Hokuto asked as if he hadn’t asked something in the first place before he remembered. “Oh, so I am still-”

 

“Human, yes. But your sleep was way deeper than your usual one. It is naturally for the human body to completely shut down after getting bitten by my kind,” Taiga explained calmly as he moved closer to touch the bite marks on Hokuto’s neck.

 

“Don’t worry, the marks will vanish in a few days again, the only bite marks which remain are the ones you get when you are turned,” Taiga explained, his eyes scanning the boy with a weird fascination and soon he was sitting on his knees next to him.

 

“But you don’t have any marks,” Hokuto let out carefully as he couldn’t spot anything on the boy’s white skin and the latter formed a brief smile before he lifted his head and moved with his fingers over his own throat. Alone this small movement made something in Hokuto want to reach out for him, but he held back as the latter faced him again.

 

“I wasn’t turned, that’s why. There are two types of vampires in this world: Those who turn and those who get turned.”

 

“And you turn…” Hokuto concluded, on which his hand wandered back to his bite marks skeptically.

 

“Yes indeed, but I can choose if I want to turn someone, kill someone or just let them return to be a normal human.”

 

“So you never experienced it to be human?”

 

Hokuto’s question changed something in Taiga’s eyes, but it didn’t seem to offend him.

 

“Which makes your kind even more interesting. I want to understand you, but without even knowing how it feels to be human I am not sure if I can get all your weird features and actions.”

 

Taiga moved closer and put his hand on Hokuto’s face without any hesitation and the younger one shut his eyes for a moment, before he relaxed again. What was this feeling he had around this creature? Why didn’t he just forget about him after their first encounter? Of course he had realized how dangerous he was and how stupid he was to search for him in the first place. Taiga had rescued him once and almost killed him as well, so yes this medal had two sides. But which part in life didn’t?

 

“What can you feel?” Hokuto asked and wanted to smack his head for this stupid question, but for Taiga it seemed to be a legit thing to ask.

 

“Depends on how you interpret that word,” Taiga starts before he crawled closer and Hokuto automatically shifted back, but soon his back hit the wall and Taiga was sitting over his legs making it impossible for him to move further away.

 

“I can feel your embarrassment for example.”

 

On that Hokuto could feel how the heat shot up to his face and he knew that he must have turned red all over up to his ears in seconds on the way Taiga’s smile grew bigger.

 

“I also felt the fight inside of your when you allowed me to drink from you. The sudden fear of dying!”

 

“Was that why you stopped?” Hokuto asked, but Taiga shook his head.

 

“I am not sure why I stopped. I was completely gone at that moment, but then something changed. You called me, you called my name and somehow I found back. It is the first time that something like this happened to be honest.”

 

Somehow it made Hokuto proud how this beautiful and majestic creature seemed to get confused when he asked him complicated questions he couldn’t quite answer, because he hadn’t experienced things like this until now.

 

“How old are you?” Again a weird question, but Taiga seemed to seriously start counting in his head and he sat down on Hokuto’s tights after a moment and looked up to the ceiling.

 

“I remember fighting wars, seeing how empires got built and crumbled again. Centuries passed, but there is a point where it gets blurry, where I can’t quite count the years anymore.”

 

That was answer enough for him, because it didn’t matter that much anyways, their topic about emotions on the other hand was still not clear to him, because Taiga had avoided this question more or less.

 

“So about what you feel, I meant your own feelings,” Hokuto explained on which Taiga tilted his head again and this time Hokuto couldn’t hold back a small chuckle. As Taiga raised an eyebrow at him he bit on his underlip revealing one of his small fangs. Instead of reacting on his chuckle Taiga got up on his knees again and moved his hand to Hokuto’s lips who froze again.

 

“If I turned you, your fangs would be beautiful,” Taiga let out as he stared at the boy’s teeth in fascination before Hokuto finally got a grip and shut his mouth again.

 

“This is a feeling for example,” Hokuto continued, trying to get Taiga’s attention away from him and back to the topic. “Everything you told me before is something I felt and you could recognize, but what can a vampire feel? I mean, when you say that my fangs are beautiful then this is a feeling, right?”

 

“You tell me, you are the human here.”

 

“Good point,” Hokuto said nodding, before he leant back against the wall a little bit more as it was clear that Taiga didn’t really know what personal space meant or he just didn’t care. “So for example when you need blood, like before when you were wounded, then your feel thirsty, right?”

 

Taiga nodded and Hokuto suddenly wondered how they had ended up in such a discussion after he had just woken up again, but weirdly enough that he didn’t feel any pain on the neck, he didn’t feel exhausted either. Maybe his body’s shut down as Taiga had said, had cured him in a few hours.

 

“But that is a natural feeling, like humans need to eat and drink, but if it is connected to emotions then it is different.”

 

“Different how?”

 

Hokuto tried hard not to smile on Taiga’s question, but the other one really seemed to enjoy their conversation and if he would get off him and sit on the other side of the bed and listen like a normal person this conversation would be even more relaxing, but it was obvious that he wouldn’t do him that favor.

 

“Okay how to explain this? If a human just acts because he is told to, then normally the emotions end up being dark. The person gets annoyed, angry or sad. If you do something you like on the other hand then you will feel joy or pleasure. You know what I mean?”

 

“Not sure to be honest. Give me an example,” Taiga asked and the way he kept staring at Hokuto nonstop without even blinking it was more than hard for the other one to concentrate.

 

“Okay so, ehm let’ see. If you are told to eat something you don’t like-”

 

“I am not eating,” Taiga interrupted him. “Give me an example with something I can do as well, I want to try it and see if I can understand those emotions.”

 

“Okay, then I guess I should choose something positive, making you angry wouldn’t really be a good idea,” Hokuto said, his voice not more than a whisper in the end, even though he was more than sure that Taiga could hear him even from miles away.

 

“Come on give me an example,” Taiga ordered impatiently, but Hokuto couldn’t quite concentrate and nothing would really come to his mind, nothing which wasn’t about his own emotions at least. “Is it that difficult to find something which is connected to emotions for humans?”

 

“No, it isn’t. Give me a moment.”

 

“Oh come on, anything is fine,” Taiga nagged again, shaking him on the shoulders so that concentrating was almost impossible.

 

“Okay, okay, stop it! Then how about a kiss?” Hokuto almost yelled at Taiga, but fell silent right away as he realized what he had said. “I-… No wait, sorry. Forget it.”

 

But before Hokuto could convince him the older one’s hands were on his face, making sure that he couldn’t look away as he scanned his face even more intensely than before.

 

“What do you feel right now?”

 

“Eh?” Hokuto looked at the latter in confusion, but Taiga just kept staring.

 

“I’m feeling nothing special I guess, maybe a little bit uncomfortable?”

 

“And I told you that I can tell when you lie,” Taiga warned him and Hokuto felt how the heat crawled back into his face.

 

“You feel embarrassed, I can say that! You felt the same before a few minutes earlier and in the cold storage as well, but why?”

 

“Because- I...You are too close,” Hokuto stumbled, but he still didn’t dare to push Taiga away.

 

“Is that a good or a bad emotion?”

 

“Depends on the situation I guess,” Hokuto let out in a low voice as he tried to look away, but Taiga wouldn’t let him.

 

“So you humans feel embarrassed about kisses as well?”

 

“Sometimes.”

 

“But you said a kiss is for good emotions, right? So if you feel embarrassed about it, then it is good, isn’t it?”

 

“Yes-, maybe, I don’t kn-”

 

The next moment Taiga had leant forward and his lips were on his. Cold lips carefully brushing over his. Instead of reacting he remained frozen for a while, fascinated by the fact how smooth his lips moved even though he didn’t even seem to realize what a kiss meant. Before he knew what was happening, his body moved on its own when he moved his hands to Taiga’s neck to pull him closer and the latter just followed his movements. Hokuto closed his eyes and shivered as Taiga’s fingers imitated Hokuto’s movements and moved down to his neck. He felt how his own movements got greedier and he tried to sit up even more to gain more control over the kiss, but before he could deepen it Taiga backed off. He sat back, taking his hands away and kept looking at the younger one with a weird expression.

 

“What?” Hokuto asked confused, but Taiga knew how he felt, right? So no need to hide it.

 

“Interesting,” Taiga said with a lopsided smile before he moved his fingers over his own lips. “Your embarrassment changed into something else in the middle, what was it? Why did it change?”

 

“Weren’t we talking about your emotions here? How did you feel?” Hokuto asked while crossing his arms in front of his chest before dropping against the wall with his back. But instead of answering Taiga’s look remained scanning and it annoyed Hokuto even more.

 

“You want me to read your emotions now or what? Sorry to disappoint you, but humans can’t do that.”

 

“You are angry,” Taiga let out suddenly on which Hokuto raised both eyebrows with a weird chuckle.

 

“Angry? Why would I?” He asked annoyed, because Taiga had hit the jackpot without even understanding what that meant.

 

“I don’t know, but you should. It’s your bad emotion, right?”

 

“But you caused it!”

 

“It’s my fault?” Taiga asked somehow hurt, but Hokuto got even angrier on his innocent look, as if the latter was playing with him.

 

“Are you playing dumb now or what? Didn’t you feel how I switched to angry?”

 

“Yes I did. When I backed off you did, but why?”

 

“Because, this is not what you usually do!”

 

“Backing off?”

 

“No,” Hokuto growled. “You just-, a kiss is not something you do for analyzing and then have a ‘interesting’ reaction about it.”

 

“Then a kiss is a bad thing after all?”

 

“What? No! God damnit, what’s wrong in your head?” Hokuto yelled at him as he shifted back to free his legs and tried to push him away. Yes he had really succeeded in making him angry, even though he really shouldn’t be. He was the one who had suggested the kiss and why would he be angry at Taiga for reacting this weird? He wasn’t human after all. He didn’t know how much emotional chaos something like this could cause.

 

“Could you get off me for now?” Hokuto asked in an annoyed voice as he pushed Taiga with more force as the latter refused to move.

 

“Just tell me what I did wrong!” Taiga said as he tried to hold Hokuto in place, but the younger one started struggling to get away from him.

 

“Nothing, forget it!” Hokuto yelled and the next moment he found himself tackled back on the bed right before he succeeded to get up. Taiga had grabbed him on the shoulders and shoved him down on the mattress again, but this time Hokuto didn’t yell at him. The dangerous growl which had escaped Taiga’s lips had made clear that the fun part of the conversation was definitely over.

 

“You humans can be really annoying sometimes,” Taiga hissed, but somehow Hokuto didn’t feel as frightened as he maybe should.

 

“And vampires can get angry as well, as I see,” Hokuto let out in a way too calm voice and to his surprise Taiga seemed to get right away what he was saying as he let go of him and stood up from the bed.

 

He walked up and down the small path next to the bed, right next to the open square under the bell. Staring at his hands in confusion, then touching his lips, then his head and hair, while mumbling some incomprehensible words.

 

The picture in front of Hokuto seemed kind of funny to him at first, but he saw how troubled Taiga was by his own reaction. Sure he had attacked the person which tried to kill Hokuto, but that wasn’t out of anger, but because he wanted to rescue him out of curiosity.

 

Having this talk about emotions, and showing him so many in such a short time, without being able to explain them properly and then even bringing him to the edge to feel bad emotions, instead of good ones, Taiga seemed to need a break from human nature and Hokuto sat back on the bed with his knees raised to his chest, his eyes still on Taiga who was walking up and down without a break.

 

But then he suddenly stopped and moved over to Hokuto so fast that the latter flinched as Taiga sat right in front of him again, but this time his face showed no anger at all.

 

“I got it!” Taiga let out kind of proud with a weird satisfied smile.

 

“You got what?”

 

“Why you got angry.”

 

“Eh?” Hokuto blinked at him as if he was talking to a kid which just came running with its solved math homework, proudly showing it to his mother.

 

“It is actually easily explained when taking the human nature into consideration. When a human gets angry at another one, then the second one will get angry as well most of the time. If one cries, it is not so unusual that another person is crying with the other one. So if a human shows affection to another one, then you want to receive the same affection in return, but you didn’t get it this time, so as the result you got angry,” Taiga announced proudly, snapping his fingers. But Hokuto could still just stare at him perplex.

 

“Am I wrong?”

 

“No, you are not, but this is not how you normally talk about emotions, you know?” Hokuto tried to explain to him, but Taiga just dropped down on the mattress completely, staring at the ceiling.

 

“You humans are complicated. Why do you always react on other people’s emotions so much, isn’t it bothersome?”

 

“You just did the same, even though you are not human.”

 

Taiga turned on his side, resting his chin on his palm while looking up at Hokuto questioning and again the younger one couldn’t figure out his attitude. He seemed to jump forth and back between different personalities. Maybe trying to understand humans had influenced him faster than he had expected.

 

“You got angry at me, because I got angry at you, right?”

 

Taiga nodded, but Hokuto wasn’t really sure if he got his point. “Anyways, maybe like this you’ll understand other emotions sooner or later as well.”

 

When Hokuto rose to his feet Taiga sat up as well. “What are you doing?”

 

“Ehm, going home I guess,” Hokuto answered, but felt a little bit stupid for his sudden try to run away from the conversation. Or was he running away from the possibility that Taiga could try to understand even more of him and throw him into an even bigger emotional rollercoaster through that?

 

“Why are you not staying?”

 

Hokuto was impressed that Taiga hadn’t said that he wasn’t allowed to leave, because after all he knew his secret and he could easily keep him there if he wanted.

 

“I have... things to do, like going to work,” again he wanted the ground to split and swallow him, why was he talking so much nonsense in front of him? But on the other hand maybe he really had to explain to him that as a human he had not such a carefree life as the other one had. Okay carefree was maybe not the right word, but different indeed.

 

“Are you coming back tomorrow?”

 

“You want me to?”

 

“I guess so,” Taiga replied completely natural and it brought a brief smile on Hokuto’s lips.

 

“Then I’ll teach you more about us humans tomorrow, if you are not getting bored by it.”

 

Here he was trying to go on distance and offered to come back again, maybe he was making even less sense than Taiga, but the latter didn’t seem to mind that as he flashed him a bright smile as well before nodding.

 

“I’ll be waiting then.”

 

***

 

Because Hokuto had promised to come back the next evening, Taiga could rest over the following day without problems. But as soon as the sun finally set, he moved up to the clock tower again.

 

The clock was heard nine times, then ten, but before it could be heard eleven times the sweet scent which he couldn’t get enough of, filled his nose again and he turned towards the square under the bell and even though Hokuto wouldn’t be able to spot him up there, he could see each and every detail of the boy. He could hear that his heartbeat was faster than usual, maybe he had tried to arrive earlier and was worried now that he had made him wait. Whatever it was, it made Taiga jump down from the platform without a second thought and Hokuto escaped a small scream as Taiga landed right next to him, before he even reached the staircase.

 

“Don’t do that!”

 

Taiga escaped a chuckle on the shocked expression of the boy, but he relaxed quite fast again.

 

“I’m sorry that I am so late. Some things didn’t go as planned at work and I couldn’t leave on time,” Hokuto apologized and Taiga could tell that he was really nervous that Taiga would be angry. But instead of scolding him, he stepped next to the boy and hooked his arm into his, pulling him towards the huge wooden double doors.

 

“Where are we going?”

 

“On a walk. That’s what humans do, right?” Taiga asked playful and Hokuto cracked a relieved smile and followed him willingly out into the cold night.

 

They walked in silence through town and there were just a few people crossing their way. A carriage, a few drunken men. All in all the town seemed really quiet and soon Taiga realized that Hokuto was staring at his arm which he was still holding on to after several minutes had passed.

 

“You don’t like it?” Taiga asked and made a move to let go of him, but Hokuto squeezed his elbow against his body so that Taiga couldn’t pull his arm away.

 

“No it’s okay, don’t worry. I was just wondering if it is okay for you?”

 

“Why wouldn’t it?”

 

Hokuto twisted his mouth a little bit and Taiga could tell right away that he tried to find the right words.

 

“Don’t get this the wrong way, but I just can’t understand how you can walk so calmly next to me while you were unable to control yourself back at the storage. You seem...like a total different person. When I helped you and you were in the need of blood you were so, ehm, fierce!? And when I woke up again you were totally excited and still somehow calm, the same as now. It feels like you are a complete different person.”

 

“You just explained that yourself.”

 

“I did?” Hokuto asked confused and Taiga gave him a brief smile.

 

“As you said, I was thirsty at that time and wounded, turning fierce as you call it, is kind of an instinct. Or maybe you should call it beguiling? I have to get to my pray to feed and there are other ways than force to get what I need and that is one of them. When you woke up again I had fed, I satisfied all my needs, so even though your blood still has the nicest scent in the world for me, even now, I am not feeling the urge to attack you, that is why I am able to be so close,” Taiga explained in a calm voice and Hokuto listened carefully. It wasn’t just Taiga learning more about the humans, but also Hokuto learning more about his kind. It was actually the first time that he shared so many information with a human. “But enough of that tell me more about the humans. Like for example what you feel right now?”

 

They were back at the topic from the night before, but Hokuto didn’t seem to be taken aback by it. Instead he let out a small chuckle and looked up into the sky for a moment while they kept walking over the main bridge of the city, with the lights of the street lamps flickering and reflecting in the boy’s eyes as he turned to look at Taiga again.

 

“How do you feel, not what do you feel.”

 

“Is there a difference?”

 

“There is, but how to explain this,” Hokuto started and let out a long breath, looking at the cold breeze he released. “For example, I feel cold! This is what I feel right now, what my body feels. But how I feel is something that is not related to the temperature or my surroundings, it is mostly decided by the people around me. Am I making sense?” Hokuto asked kind of sheepishly and he could see on Taiga’s face that no he wasn’t making sense after all.

 

“Okay wait, let me try it this way,” Hokuto said and took Taiga’s arm away from his and guided his hand to his chest instead. They stopped walking and remained silent for a moment.

 

“What do you feel?” Hokuto asked and Taiga tilted his head, thinking about his answer carefully.

 

“Your heartbeat, you blood rushing through your veins and your breath on my face.”

 

Hokuto automatically stepped a little bit back as he realized on his last words how close they were standing, but then he cleared his throat and continued. “Okay so now, how do you feel?”

 

“As I said, I-” Taiga stopped and his look turned confused as he realized that he couldn’t answer this question the same way as he did before. “How do I feel?” He repeated and Hokuto squeezed his hand on the way his look turned thoughtful.

 

“Don’t try to think about it, feel it!”

 

“I don’t know, it’s hard for me to describe, because I never talked about thinks like feelings,” Taiga admitted, but Hokuto just shook his head, not letting him drop this topic now that it got more complicated for him.

 

“Yesterday you felt anger, after I got angry at you, remember?”

 

Taiga nodded and Hokuto dared to make a step forward again. “When you hunt, your instincts tell you what to feel to make it easier to get what you want, but now the only thing you are feeling is what you want to feel, so what is it?”

 

“It’s not anger that is for sure. Also no other bad emotion I’ve experienced from the humans.”

 

“Then the feeling is good?”

 

“Kind of,” Taiga replied and he finally looked up at Hokuto after spacing out for a moment, while trying to figure out what was going on inside of him. The moment he looked at the boy’s eyes again something jumped inside of him and this time it was him who squeezed the boy’s hand and Hokuto spread a wide smile revealing his small human fangs. On that Taiga’s body acted weird again as he stepped even closer.

 

“You are fascinating me,” Taiga finally let out and none of them even thought about looking away or backing off. The other one had a weird determination in his eyes which made it somehow easier for Taiga to figure out what to do. “My heart can’t beat faster, because it doesn’t beat in the first place, but just looking at you makes something inside of my body tingle, which is already weird enough thinking that my body is used to not feel anything at all,” Taiga admitted with a weird chuckle, but he still kept his eyes on the latter, which just nodded and waited for him to continue. “I feel something I’ve never felt before and I just feel it related to you. I still can’t name it, but yes it is a good emotion.”

 

“So what does that emotion tells you to do?”

 

Again Taiga needed a moment, but he understood the question. His instincts told him what to do to get to his prey, so his emotions were also able to tell him what to do, right?

 

“It’s okay, don’t think! Let them act for you!” Hokuto said. A small impatient tone in his voice as he waited for Taiga to do anything at all and this time Taiga did as he was told. He let his emotions take over and just followed the movements of his body, shutting any thoughts out completely as he reached out for Hokuto and pulled him into a kiss.

 

It didn’t feel the same as the day before, not at all. He had just analyzed Hokuto at that time. This time his emotions told him to kiss him, he wanted to kiss him! And Hokuto wanted to kiss him back, more than anything in  the world. Feeling how Hokuto responded immediately, with his heartbeat getting faster and his hands moving to his hair, slightly shaking, Taiga also left the rest to his body and his hands moved up to the boy’s cheeks. The latter flinched a little bit on the cold touch, but relaxed right away. Taiga changed the angle of the kiss and moved his hands to the boy’s hair as well to pull him even closer. He wanted to feel more, his whole body reacting incredible fast to all those new emotions. When Hokuto suddenly bit down on his lip and he felt one of his small fangs on it, his lips curled up against his will. Of course he wouldn’t bite him with his own fangs, that was different after all, but he wouldn’t let him get away this easily. He shoved his tongue into his mouth, not giving the boy the chance to refuse and pulled even more on his hair as one of Hokuto’s hands wrapped around his waist to pull him closer. They weren’t sure whom the first moan escaped into the kiss, but they didn’t hold back any noises at all. There were no people after all and even if, they wouldn’t mind.

 

Taiga escaped something that was more of a warning growl than a moan when Hokuto tried to step back, but then he also moved his hands towards his chest pushing him lightly and as Taiga still didn’t react he clapped on his collarbone a few times until Taiga finally realized what was going on and he released the boy which took a deep breath and panted heavily afterwards.

 

“Sorry, but I need to breathe at some point, weak point of us humans I guess,” Hokuto said kind of apologizing. Taiga on the other hand stared at him completely perplex as if he couldn’t really catch up with what had happened. He moved his fingers to his own lips and Hokuto escaped a small chuckle on his confused face.

 

“So how do you feel now?” Hokuto dared to ask after another moment of silence.

 

“Weird…” Taiga said honest, but this time Hokuto wouldn’t get angry, he could see how hard it was for the other one to deal with his own actions, not able to explain his body’s reaction towards him.

 

“Maybe we should keep walking for now, so you can clear your head,” Hokuto suggested and this time it was him who grabbed Taiga’s arm and pulled him closer. Taiga kept walking in silence next to him, deep in his thoughts, but Hokuto kept a light smile on his lips. Taiga needed actions more than explanations, that was for sure. But maybe for tonight he had enough to keep him busy for a while, even though Hokuto would like to challenge his emotions some more.

 

***

 

Days passed fast and they turned to weeks. Taiga had lived through centuries, so patience was one of his strong points. But that didn’t apply for Hokuto! Taiga had found a huge pleasure in exploring his emotions each time he met with Hokuto and that was about daily by now. Two times Hokuto couldn’t meet with him and even though Taiga had spent such a long time without anyone by his side, without needing anyone, he felt lonely right away.

 

Each time Hokuto showed up at the clock tower Taiga was waiting for him already. Some nights they would go for a walk, others they would stay there, discussing human emotions or Taiga would tell Hokuto some of his life stories, because Hokuto seemed more than interested in his past. They didn’t run out of topics at all, but at some point it got hard to concentrate on the conversations, because normally Taiga couldn’t hold back after some time and he started touching Hokuto’s face, kissing him again and studying every detail. Of course Hokuto liked it, a lot. But somehow it seemed like Taiga didn’t realize that he needed more than that.

 

They were out for a walk again and it suddenly started snowing. Hokuto was more than surprised to see Taiga so fascinated by it, as he looked up into the night sky like a kid, smiling in bliss as the snowflakes fell on his skin. They remained on his face way longer than usual, through his cold skin and Hokuto reached out to wipe them off his cheeks after a moment. Taiga looked at him with a smile and Hokuto automatically leant in to kiss him and Taiga responded right away.

 

“You like snow?” Hokuto asked as they parted again and Taiga nodded, stretching his hand out to let the snowflakes cover his palm.

 

“Out of all the things I have seen in my long life, snow is still the most fascinating to me,” he explained, but then his look suddenly changed and he looked back at Hokuto with a kind of teasing expression. “Okay it was, until I found you. Now it is the second most fascinating thing, after you.”

 

“Ehhh, so I should feel really special right now, I guess?” Hokuto asked back in the same teasing voice, but just as he wanted to lean forward again Taiga suddenly tensed and turned his head towards the other side of the market place.

 

“What is-” A scream stopped Hokuto from ending his question and he looked worried towards the small side alleys. He automatically stepped forward, but Taiga grabbed him by the arm.

 

“Don’t!” He said warning, stepping in front of him.

 

“The scream came from a girl, what do you want me to do? Stay here without knowing what happened, sorry I can’t do that,” Hokuto complained, but Taiga’s grip on him got even tighter as he tried to move forward again and Hokuto hissed as his grip started hurting him.

 

“Taiga, what is going on?” He asked angry, but he lost his voice as the other one turned to him with dark eyes. It wasn’t like he was threatening him, but Hokuto could see that there was something dangerous going on.

 

“It is too late anyways,” he replied after a moment of silence. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and when he opened them again they were filled with disgust. Then he let go of Hokuto again who looked at him questioning.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Go and see for yourself, if you want to. But let me tell you that it won’t be pleasant.”

 

A shiver went through Hokuto’s body, seeing Taiga this tense. What could it be that he felt so uncomfortable suddenly? Hokuto ignored Taiga’s warning and started running towards the alleys. After turning around a few corners a body on the ground came into his sight and he covered his mouth with his hand to suppress the gasp which was about to escape his lips.

 

“I told you,” Taiga scolded him as he stepped next to him. The body was indeed of a girl, barely an adult and her throat was ripped in a cruel way, the blood running over the street towards the small cannel on the side. For Taiga the scent of the fresh blood was nothing special, maybe even something positive, but for Hokuto it was too much and after a few miserable tries to calm down he turned away and fell on his knees right in front of the cannel and threw up.

 

Taiga waited patiently until he had calmed down again, but his eyes scanned their surroundings worried.

 

“Who-… what did this to her?” Hokuto asked as Taiga walked over to him.

 

“Don’t you know already?”

 

Hokuto got up again, but remained away from the body this time. Taiga’s look wasn’t judging even though it was clear that he knew what Hokuto was thinking.

 

“Another vampire?”

 

“Exactly, but different…”

 

“A turned one?” Hokuto asked in shock, because Taiga had explained more about the turned vampires to him a few days earlier and he wasn’t really sure if he wanted to meet one. They were wilder than the pure type and had no morals like Taiga did. Of course not all pure vampires behaved like Taiga either, there were differences as well, but for the turned vampires it was more than hard to not surrender to their instincts. They were dangerous and killed out of fun, like this one did as well as it seemed. They had arrived so fast that there was definitely no time for him to drink from her and if he wanted to he could have killed someone in silence, but it seemed like he had done it on purpose. This thought made Hokuto look up at Taiga again, who was still scanning their surroundings.

 

“What do you think, was there a reason for this cruel murder?” Hokuto asked.

 

“Normally they are not staying at a place for long, so he maybe just got bored while traveling here and wanted to have some fun.”

 

Hokuto stared at the other one in shock and Taiga needed a moment to realize how his words must have seemed to him.

 

“HIS kind of fun! I know it’s not fun, but for his type it is something exciting, so it could be that he will be gone in the next few days already.”

 

“And kill other random people on his way?”

 

“Maybe. But don’t worry, you are with me at night time, so you are safe.”

 

Hokuto kept staring at him, but Taiga didn’t even seem to realize that for a sane person this was a really ridiculous statement.

 

“I don’t care if I am safe, what about all the others?”

 

“You want to protect someone? Family, friends? No problem, we can keep an eye on them, then.”

 

“Taiga!” Hokuto let out in a stern voice and the latter finally seemed to sense that he had succeeded again in making him angry.

 

“What did I do wrong now?”

 

“Saying that humans’ lives have different values.”

 

“They don’t? All I’ve seen over all those years led me exactly to this conclusion though.”

 

“Fine, a few people might think so as well and I would be a liar if I said I wouldn’t treasure my family and friends a lot, but I don’t want to sit back and wait, when I know that a vampire is killing random people just for fun.”

 

Taiga’s look softened a little bit on the way Hokuto got so shaken up by this unfortunate event and he took the latter’s hands in his to make them stop shaking.

 

“Okay, I’m sorry! If it is so important for you, then I will keep an eye on him over night, but I can’t promise that I can help everyone.”

 

“As long as you are willing to help, that is all I need to know,” Hokuto replied with a nod and a really brief smile. Of course Taiga had also just come to this town a few months ago and even though he didn’t kill anyone the people feared him and noticed his presence at night. The night he had been attacked and almost killed he had felt more than excited as Taiga had shown up in front of him the first time, even though he didn’t know anything about him at that time. But with this vampire it was different. There was nothing fascinating he felt about him, the only thing he could feel was disgust and exactly because he was so different from Taiga, he wanted him gone. Somehow the fear of losing Taiga through the fault of another vampire had overtaken him without him even realizing it and he wouldn’t be able to take it if he lost him just like this.

***

 

“I still think you shouldn’t be here.”

 

“You were the one who said I am safe, because I am with you at night.”

 

“But that was before we decided to actually go after that vampire.”

 

“Oh so you can’t protect me?” Hokuto asked a little bit playful, because since they had started to patrol through the city at night over the last few days, Taiga had become tense and switched into a bad mood easily and so Hokuto tried to cheer him up a little bit. Taiga had explained to him before that vampires couldn’t sense each other’s presence, so all he could sense was the human’s fear or the scent of the fresh blood when they got attacked, so when the vampire had attacked again they weren’t able to make it in time and Taiga had blamed that on himself, even though Hokuto had tried to explain to him that he shouldn’t feel guilty. They tried and that was all that mattered to Hokuto. So they kept trying for the following nights as well and luckily there had been no new incident until now.

 

“Taiga, are you listening to me?” Hokuto asked as Taiga didn’t react to him at all, but the latter just nodded and kept staring absentminded through the alleys. “Taiga!”

 

This time Hokuto grabbed him by the elbow to get his attention and the latter finally stopped and looked up at him. Even with just the light of the moon, Hokuto could see that Taiga looked different than usual, more fragile and kind of exhausted.

 

“What is it?” Taiga asked impatiently and Hokuto raised an eyebrow on his snappy tone.

 

”Are you so annoyed by my morals?”

 

On his hurt voice Taiga finally spent him his full attention again and shook his head right away. “Don’t be stupid, why should I be annoyed of you in any way?”

 

“Then what is it?” Hokuto really tried his best to figure out what was going on, but the tower clock disturbed their conversation as it resounded five times.

 

“You really need to get some sleep! You never went out with me for so long. The sun will also be up in about an hour. I doubt he will make a move tonight if he didn’t do so until now.

 

Hokuto wanted to protest at first, but he couldn’t deny that he felt really exhausted as well through the lag of sleep. But he was still worried about Taiga, so he convinced him to accompany him back to the clock tower and rest there, because he didn’t have work the coming day anyways.

 

They went back without continuing their conversation and Taiga dropped next to Hokuto on the bed with a sigh. Hokuto moved his hand up to his forehead on which the latter blinked at him in confusion.

 

“Seriously, if you were a human I would say you have a fever.”

 

“Good that I can assure you then that I don’t,” Taiga let out with a brief fake smile and he kept staring at Hokuto for a moment longer, but then his eyes traveled lower and as he realized how desperately he stared at him, he finally looked away. But it was too late, because Hokuto’s look darkened right away as he finally realized what was going on.

 

“Don’t tell me that you didn’t feed since we started patrolling?”

 

Taiga twisted his mouth and tried to turn away, but Hokuto made sure that he would keep facing him. Now that he was sure of what was going on he felt stupid for not realizing it earlier. The red color of Taiga’s eyes had gotten way brighter, the same way it did at the cold storage. “How stupid can you be? You are patrolling with me and then you are keeping guard in front of my house for the rest of the night and are too weak to get out at daytime to get blood. What did you think? Like this we are both in danger!” Hokuto wanted to scold himself for being so harsh, but what else could he do, it really had been a stupid move from Taiga and it didn’t make sense at all.

 

“I just forgot about it,” Taiga answered in a low voice, twisting his fingers nervously. On that Hokuto escaped a mocking chuckle before his look turned serious again and he grabbed Taiga by the chin to make him look up. The latter escaped a surprised gasp, but the reason why he tried to back off was obviously different.

 

“Forgot about it, my ass! Did you really think you could win against your instincts? For what reason? Damnit, am I so weak?”

 

Taiga wanted to respond something, but Hokuto was too angry to let this end in a conversation of any kind. There was just one solution to this, so there was no need to talk about it. He pushed Taiga backwards so that the latter had to crawl more on the bed, before he sat on top of him, making sure that he wouldn’t try to get away. The shirt he was wearing had a high collar and no buttons, so he pulled it over his head without another thought and Taiga stared at him almost hypnotized for a moment.

 

“What are you waiting for?” Hokuto asked impatiently as he leant down so much that he had to hold himself up with his hands next to Taiga’s head, who was still staring with his lips pressed together with what seemed to be a lot of effort, but Hokuto could already see that his instincts had of course kicked in now that he was so close and Taiga could smell his blood way better than normally and feel his heart rate through the vibrations of his body on top of him. His fangs would definitely hurt the inside of his lip if he wouldn’t relax soon, but he tried to play calm which made Hokuto go even more mad at him.

 

“What’s with the sudden restraint? You were all into it at the cold storage and this time you are in a way better shape, so I bet you can control your thirst. What holds you back?”

 

That was what Taiga wanted to know as well. Because truth was that he couldn’t really say what held him back. There was this weird feeling inside of him growing stronger with each day he didn’t feed and each time he walked so close to Hokuto, kissed him, touched him. Maybe this feeling kept him from feeding on someone else or it just kept him around the Hokuto the whole time, ignoring the whole world around him. He couldn’t really tell what was going on, but he knew that it hadn’t been his instincts. Unfortunately now his instincts mixed with those weird feelings and everything inside of him seemed to explode. And Hokuto just made everything even more complicated with his actions, but it was already too late to hold back, because the moment Hokuto had gotten out of his shirt and pulled Taiga closer again, his mind went blank. Before Hokuto could ask him any more unnecessary questions Taiga had switched positions with him and tackled him down on the bed. Like a predator watching its prey his bright red eyes shined down at him and Hokuto gulped hard as Taiga trapped his wrists next to his head and brushed his lips over his neck right away.

 

“What if I can’t hold back this time?” Taiga asked in a dark voice and Hokuto needed a moment to be able to answer.

 

“There is no reason for you to lose control.”

 

On that Taiga escaped a low chuckle, something Hokuto hadn’t heard until now and Taiga lifted his head again so that he faced Hokuto directly. “What if I told you that I am losing control about something different than my thirst?”

 

Before Hokuto could even answer Taiga kissed him greedily and to Hokuto’s surprise Taiga was able to deepen the kiss without his fangs showing. So it was really not his thirst he couldn’t tame. The dangerous, but also eager stare which hit him as Taiga backed off a little bit again made Hokuto’s last sane thoughts jump off the clock tower and he let all caution behind and freed one of his wrists just to pull Taiga down on his hair again to give him a kind of desperate kiss on which Taiga’s lips curled up against his, but he surrendered in it again and deepened it again, until Hokuto needed to back off unwillingly. But he stayed close as much as possible and after he pulled lightly on his other wrists as well Taiga released it and he flung his arms around his neck.

 

“Then I would say it is time for you to lose control,” Hokuto replied in a dark voice. He had seen this look in the other one’s eyes before when he drank from him the first time, but it had just been his instincts trying to get hold of its prey back then. But even though he wasn’t human, Hokuto could read more in his behavior than the other one could through his lag of knowledge of emotions and this time it was definitely different.

 

“Then show me how humans lose control,” Taiga replied in an impatient tone and Hokuto saw how his eyes flickered down to his throat from time to time. It was definitely hard for him to fight the urge to satisfy his thirst first, but this was also what brought his emotions to the surface in the first place. His instincts made him weak and vulnerable towards them and Hokuto couldn’t deny that he loved seeing him like this.

 

“Let me show you,” Hokuto whispered against his lips, but moved towards his neck instead and Taiga stretched his neck as the other one kissed over it and when he suddenly bit him he let out a small chuckle and tried to pin Hokuto down to the bed again to get back into control, but the younger one wouldn’t let him, because they would get stuck again without Taiga really knowing how far he could go with those feelings of his.

 

So Hokuto started struggling against Taiga’s grip and to his surprise he got the upper hand quite fast and turned them around with Taiga letting out a growl as he got trapped under him, but the way his fangs suddenly showed for a moment couldn’t even scare Hokuto at this point anymore.

 

“Don’t complain,” Hokuto hissed at him as Taiga tried to get away under him, but this time it was Hokuto who pinned him down, holding him on his shoulders before he reached out for his shirt to rip it open without a single thought. Sure he could have gotten rid of it another way, but somehow he was sure that Taiga wasn’t really in the mood for long explanations and without knowing what his actions meant, he would refuse right away, so he had to handle this differently.

 

As Taiga tried to fight him off again Hokuto pressed him down into the sheets with his own body weight before he moved his hand under the boy’s chin to make sure that he couldn’t bite him as he leant down to his ear.

 

“You wanted to lose control right? Let me show you how it works and next time you can do it all on your own.” On his words he could feel Taiga shiver under him and he relaxed a little bit, but through his thirst he still had to fight against his own body, but it was clear that he wouldn’t feed on Hokuto before the boy would give him the okay for that and even though he should feel guilty for it, he enjoyed it way too much seeing Taiga in such a desperate fight against his own feelings.

 

With his hand still controlling the movements of his head, he moved his lips down over his neck to his collarbone, biting and licking his way down to his chest. He could feel how Taiga’s Adam’s apple moved against his hand, even though the latter didn’t have to breathe to calm down.

 

For weeks he had tried to make Taiga realize that he was almost desperate to make him go this far, but Taig’s inexperience with humans’ emotions made it hard for him to realize his needs in the first place and he had refused to actually discuss this topic with him, because it didn’t feel right. But this felt right!

 

Taiga could also finally tell that there was a difference to the way Hokuto’s body reacted towards him and with the moment he had let Hokuto overpower him, he had surrendered to someone the first time in his endless life and he couldn’t deny that he liked this exciting feeling which took over his body with Hokuto forcing it to stay still under him, with his hands moving lower with every passing second until they reached his pants.

 

By now his thirst had turned into a cruel torture to his body and Hokuto being so close just added fuel to it, but he somehow liked it and he needed more. He wanted to feel more and understand this weird sensation his body was feeling.

 

“Please…”

 

The other one looked up on the sound of his name and formed a short teasing smile before he sat up a little bit, now that he was sure that Taiga wouldn’t fight back anymore. He grabbed the seam of Taiga’s pants and as he leant forward a little bit again he pulled on it hard, so that Taiga escaped a moan. The kind of perplex look which followed his own sudden sound made it hard for Hokuto not to laugh, but sure Taiga never experienced this kind of feeling, his body’s reaction would make him ask a lot of question, but they had to wait until alter!

 

“Can you hold back?” Hokuto asked as he leant down to Taiga’s face again, their lips just inches away from each other. When Taiga nodded Hokuto gave him a short kiss, but backed off with a hiss as Taiga’s fangs stabbed his lower lip. Scolding he looked down at the other one, but Taiga licked his lips with a weird kind of satisfaction.

 

“You are taking too long, I needed an appetizer.”

 

“Impatient, aren’t you?” Hokuto replied before he shifted his weight and placed his knee against Taiga’s crotch and slipped his hand right underneath his underwear without a single warning. Taiga tensed immediately on the grip around him. “Can’t handle it? I thought you wanted it faster?” Hokuto asked teasing as he tried to ignore the weird cold feeling which seemed to really cover Taiga’s whole body. For a moment he wondered if this would even work, but even though he couldn’t really explain how it worked, his worries were gone when his hand stroke over his already hard member, so at least this wouldn’t be a problem.

 

“Hokuto, please…” Taiga let out weakly as he closed his eyes on the touch.

 

“I like it when you call my name in such a desperate voice,” Hokuto whispered into his ear before he bit him into his earlobe as a payback for his bleeding lip and again Taiga escaped a moan.

 

Taiga was right he was definitely taking this too slow, the way his own pants felt tighter with every move, he needed to speed things up, after all he was more than sure that this wouldn’t end up as a one-night stand, not with Taiga’s desire to learn more about humans. After this experience he would definitely be thirsty for more.

 

Trying to not lose too much time and especially not too much body contact Hokuto removed his hands just to pull Taiga’s pants and underwear down and he left the rest of his clothes on the floor as well before he crawled on top of the other one again. Now that he could feel Taiga’s cold skin all over it felt even more exciting. He didn’t even flinch on the contact anymore, now moving his hands over the latter’s chest with eager eyes scanning his whole body and even though Taiga didn’t need to breathe, his movements resembled those of someone who was way too excited to stay calm and he made sure that Hokuto would come closer right away. The younger one didn’t even have a chance to resist as Taiga pulled him down into a kiss, but luckily he was able to control his thirst at least for a short moment. But Hokuto ripped himself out of his grip the moment he realized that the way Taiga licked his lips was because of the dried blood on it and of course his grip on the younger one tightened right away. Hokuto was fast enough to get away before Taiga could cause any more damage through his fangs.

 

“You really need to work on your self-control,” Hokuto scolded him as he held him down before he could try to attack him again, but this time he distracted him right away with his other hand moving down between his legs again and the growl Taiga was about to release turned into a moan and this time Hokuto couldn’t hold back anymore, he had made both of them wait long enough and even though he could take full advantage of the situation he wanted Taiga to experience the full amount of pleasure. He got up on his knees and Taiga looked up at him curiously as he moved two of his fingers into his own mouth to cover them with salvia. Of course he didn’t miss the thrill flickering in Taiga’s eyes on that, but as much as he would have loved to shove his fingers into the other one’s mouth, he knew that he would lose his fingers at the moment, so that had to wait for another time.

 

He prepared himself fast and skilled, with his fingers stretching him without any problems, even though the weird angle and Taiga’s eyes shone with more and more anticipation with every move Hokuto did on top of him and suddenly Taiga reached out for his hips, rolling his own hips up against his and Hokuto smirked on the way Taiga started to act intuitively through his overflowing emotions, even though he didn’t really know what was awaiting him.

 

“Don’t be so impatient, relax!” Hokuto scolded him lightly and held his hips still with one hand while he finally positioned himself and slid down on Taiga carefully, but quite fast. He breathed heavy by now and Taiga’s hands reached out for his chest to feel his heartbeat and on the touch of the cold and slender fingers Hokuto closed his eyes for a moment.

 

He had wondered if it would feel different and it did, somehow. But definitely not in a bad way and when he looked down to Taiga again he could tell that the latter was more than impatient for him to show him more, to make him feel more.

 

“Now you can move,” Hokuto told him in a low voice and moved his hands to Taiga’s hips and lifted them up as he rolled his own hips against his and Taiga bit his own lip through the weird satisfaction which filled his body immediately.

 

Again Hokuto had to try hard not to make it too obviously how much he enjoyed Taiga’s reactions and while the other one could normally tell every little lie through his heartbeat, he was now so distracted that Hokuto was sure that right now he could make him believe every single lie on the planet.

 

“Don’t hold back,” Hokuto said as he had to move more himself to satisfy his own needs, while Taiga still needed a moment to adapt to what was going on.

 

This time it was Hokuto who couldn’t hold back and he leant forward and grabbed Taiga by the hair, forcing his head up enough so that he could crush their lips together. He wouldn’t even mind if Taiga lost control completely now, it would make things even more interesting. But to his surprise the latter pulled back on his own this time, but took him by full surprise when he suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders and turned them around. He wasn’t sure if he was more surprised by the fact that Taiga suddenly took the lead or that he had seriously succeeded in turning them around without them losing any kind of body contact.

 

“I told you before already, but I am not sure how long I can control myself,” Taiga warned him again, his voice so deep now that it came out as a whisper almost not audible to Hokuto anymore.

 

Taiga gave him a sudden thrust on which Hokuto had to throw his head back and take a deep breath before he could think clear again, but then he pulled himself up with his arms around Taiga’s neck, their lips again just inches away from each other.

 

“And I told you that I don’t care,” Hokuto replied before he shoved his tongue deep into the other one’s mouth and Taiga replied with the next deep thrust right away, resulting with Hokuto moaning into their kiss.

 

Taiga had obviously found his sadistic side with the way he tried out different ways of teasing Hokuto and stopping him from touching himself was definitely the worst he had found so far. Taiga had obviously calmed down enough to analyze Hokuto’s behavior enough to realize what would drive him crazy and the way he had suddenly trapped his wrists over his head was resulting with Hokuto throwing a death glare at him, but Taiga didn’t feel threatened at all.

 

“You said you didn’t mind, so don’t complain,” Taiga whispered into his ear teasingly before he let go of his wrists again to move his hands over his throat. One hand moved deeper and Hokuto almost gasped as his cold fingers suddenly moved around him and stroke up his full length. He was already way too close to even complain about any teasing movements Taiga’s hands performed on him and he had to admit that he was really good even without experience. He wondered what those fingers could do if they took it even further.

 

But before he could get lost in his thoughts everything got too much for him as Taiga thrusted even harder into him. He heard the slight muffled laughter against his neck and Taiga’s cold lips on his skin and then there was the pain, way too familiar already, even though he had just experienced it once. Taiga held Hokuto’s head up with his fingers tightly grabbing his chin so that he couldn’t free himself and his fangs buried deep into his skin.

 

His orgasm hit him at the exact same moment and he wasn’t sure which of all those factors made him scream out the way he did, but he could call himself lucky that the clock hit the next full hour and made his scream vanish under the loud noise of the bell.

 

It seemed that the only reason Taiga had been able to actually hold back was the wish of feeling the sensation running through his body as he reached his climax together with finally biting him again. With a groan Taiga backed off and buried his face in the pillow to muffle his own sounds.

 

“So a vampire can feel embarrassed as well?” Hokuto asked after a moment of silence and Taiga finally sat up again, looking down at him with a kind of apologizing glance at his throat, but Hokuto couldn’t care less about the pain and after all Taiga had succeeded again in getting back into control and that at such a critical moment.

 

“You said before that embarrassment can be positive and negative, right?”

 

Hokuto nodded and waited for Taiga to continue even though it was hard for him to concentrate. Now it wasn’t just the normal tiredness which took over him, but also his body giving in slowly after Taiga had drained him of energy in two really different kinds at the same time. “I guess I just learned which one the positive is,” Taiga continued and even though there was still some blood covering Taiga’s mouth Hokuto pulled him down into a kiss, ignoring the copper like taste in his mouth. The next moment Taiga shifted his weight and finally slipped out and dropped next to Hokuto. He took the pillow and threw it to the ground after he had strained it with Hokuto’s blood and the other one was more than happy that he was that thoughtful even though he was definitely his first “human” relationship.

 

“I’m sorry,” Taiga let out suddenly as he stroke over the second marks he left on the boy’s neck. Luckily they stopped bleeding pretty fast after a vampire bite and healed in less than a day, but he was still stroking over them as if he had just ripped him apart.

 

“I told you it was fine, don’t worry,” Hokuto answered and turned on his side to have a better look at Taiga. “Now you are back to full strength and that is what I wanted.”

 

“And I drained you of yours. I guess you can call that egoism.”

 

Hokuto escaped a chuckle on Taiga’s sulking expression and he dropped a kiss on his forehead before he pulled the latter even closer.

 

“The sun will be up in no time,” Hokuto started, but Taiga shook his head before he could continue.

 

“Don’t worry, it is not reaching in here, so we can rest here together for the rest of the day.”

 

“Sounds like the perfect plan for the day,” Hokuto said as he closed his eyes for a moment, already feeling how his body thanked him for finally giving it a break, but he opened them once more as he realized somehow that Taiga was still looking at him and he was right. He looked away as he opened his eyes again, somehow feeling caught, but that made Hokuto even more curious.

 

“What is it?” Hokuto asked in a light voice, but Taiga wasn’t sure if he should voice out his question or not. By now the human emotion called embarrassment had hit him even worse than he could imagine.

 

“Come on, what is it?” Hokuto teased him now, poking him against the chest and finally Taiga gave in. He got up on his elbows and faced Hokuto with a serious look and for a moment the latter felt as if he would get scolded.

 

“How was I?”

 

Hokuto blinked a few times, but he still couldn’t really comprehend the question.

 

“Pardon?”

 

“How. was. I.?” Taiga asked, pronouncing each word separately and clearly again after rolling his eyes at the younger one. He bit his lip waiting for Hokuto’s reaction and then there was a teasing smile forming on the younger one’s lips and Taiga hit him on the forehead before he could even voice out any stupid answer.

 

“Forget it, I knew I shouldn’t have asked,” Taiga grumbled before he turned his back on Hokuto, but the latter sat up and shifted closer so that he could look at him over his shoulder.

 

“Sorry, I am really not making fun of you, I was just surprised to hear such a question from you, you know?” Hokuto said apologizing and when Taiga looked up at him, he could see that his smile was still somehow teasing, but his eyes looked at him apologizing. This was also a human feature which was bringing him headaches. How could human feel several emotions at a time, wasn’t it stressing them?

 

“Why does it surprise you?”

 

“Maybe because it is really...ehm, human like?”

 

That caught Taiga’s attention completely again and he turned on his back and Hokuto dropped down again.

 

“Is that a compliment?”

 

“If you want it to be, I guess yes,” Hokuto said honest and Taiga smiled briefly before he turned towards him completely again and the younger one sneaked into his arms as Taiga stroke over his hair.

 

“Then I want it to be a compliment,” Taiga replied and it didn’t take long until he realized that Hokuto’s heartbeat had calmed down and his breathing pace got slower. He didn’t dare to move, after all humans got easily woken up and he really wanted him to rest. All the questions he had could wait for later, as well as the second round he would definitely demand as soon as Hokuto was back at full strength.

“You think that he really just left like this?”

 

“As I told you, most vampires are not staying at the same place for long and there was no murder for over a week,” Taiga concluded, but Hokuto still felt restless about it. “Could it be that you just don’t want our patrols to end?”

 

“What? Of course that is not the reason. It’s not like I would be normally nocturnal as you are. I would prefer sleeping at this time.”

 

Taiga just let out a small teasing chuckle on that on which Hokuto raised an eyebrow at him as they walked back towards Hokuto’s house as it was almost morning again.

 

“What was that reaction for?”

 

“Not sure, maybe for the way you are able to make yourself believe your own lies?” Taiga replied with a lopsided smile. “Because if I remember correctly you stayed awake with me at the clock tower for the rest of the night after our patrols, even though you were in a serious need of sleep for your work the next day.”

 

“Oh and the reason why I couldn’t sleep wasn’t you by any chance?” Hokuto asked back teasingly as they stopped in the small alley next to his house.

 

“Fine, maybe I am a little bit guilty as well.”

 

“Is that why you decided to drop me off at my place tonight?” Hokuto asked a little bit sulky and Taiga stepped closer with a kind of scolding look. Hokuto tried to back off, but his back hit the wall after one step and Taiga’s hands on the wall trapped him suddenly. Taiga could feel Hokuto’s excitement right away and he had to admit that he had learnt to recognize his own excitement as well when they were together. That was also why he was actually more than just a little guilty for Hokuto’s lack of sleep. He just couldn’t let him go home like this. He needed him by his side. He totally enjoyed it to have him close to him, his warm body against his cold one and his heavy breathing against his skin when they couldn’t get enough of each other for the morning hours before Hokuto had to leave for work. But this time it was Hokuto who seemed like a walking ghost and so Taiga decided it was time to give him time to finally catch up on some sleep.

 

“Unfortunately you are not going to feel better even if you bite me, so I have no other choice but to make you go to sleep for a few hours. This time I have to scold you for exhausting yourself,” Taiga said as he leant closer and Hokuto breathed in sharp as Taiga moved his knee up against the inside of Hokuto’s tight.

 

“You know that you are not making it easy to feel tired like this,right?”

 

“Don’t worry, I am not planning on keeping you away from your sleep this time. I just thought I should give you a proper good night kiss,” Taiga whispered against Hokuto’s lips and before he could tease him even more the younger one had grabbed him by the hair and crushed their lips together. Taiga also moved his hands away from the wall and moved them down to his butt, groping it greedily on which Hokuto escaped a moan into their kiss. But the next moment Taiga backed off and Hokuto trapped his under lip between his teeth at the last moment to stop him from breaking the kiss completely and before Taiga could complain he had grabbed him by the shoulders and turned them around, crushing Taiga with his back into the wall to kiss him again. Taiga had to try hard to not smile into the kiss, because after all he really wanted to control his needs, so he had planned to really leave it at one kiss. But Hokuto’s self-control wasn’t the lacking one this time, but who was he to complain about Hokuto’s needs?

 

“Now you are allowed to leave,” Hokuto whispered against Taiga’s lips as he finally backed off, obviously still not satisfied, but he would survive one day without them ending up tangled up right next to each other in the same bed. “And I mean really leaving!” Hokuto added and Taiga got the broad hint right away. “I am not stupid. I know that you didn’t drink for the whole week again.”

 

Taiga escaped a growl somewhere from his throat on Hokuto’s scolding tone, but wasn’t he right?

 

“It’s not like I am in such a desperate need then the last time, as you can see I am still completely fine.”

 

“Sure and your eyes are normally that red,” Hokuto replied more serious now and Taiga knew that by now he couldn’t really hide anything from him easily anymore.

 

“How about I go to sleep and you go for a hunt, because then we are both finally back to full strength. Or you can just-”

 

“No, don’t even say it! I am not again feeding from you! Two times were already two times too much.”

 

“Then find yourself someone you are not feeling guilty for biting or I will slice my skin open to make sure that you can’t hold back.”

 

“You are getting scary, you know that?”

 

“Maybe the right threat will make you take care of yourself better,” Hokuto replied triumphing and Taiga stepped away from the wall, but before Hokuto could step away and make space for him to leave, he pulled him closer on the collar to give him his final good night kiss and as expected he was faster in backing off than Hokuto, but this time he wouldn’t let himself get cornered again and stepped out the alley.

 

“Then I better get going before the sun rises,” Taiga announced and Hokuto gave him a bright smile. Taiga really loved this sheepish smile of his and he felt kind of stupid for refusing to turn him. He could have a whole eternity with him, the first human who he fell for and still he felt like he couldn’t take away his life so easily. His emotions were too precious, this human naivety and calmness, what if it got lost through his fault? He wouldn’t be able to carry that burden. So he had to treasure the time he had with him now and keep those memories for the rest of eternity.

 

“See you tonight?” Hokuto asked with a little bit of worry in his voice, but Taiga smiled at him and when he nodded the younger one’s worries were gone completely.

 

“Definitely.”

 

“Oh and Taiga,” Hokuto shouted after him as he already walked away and Taiga turned to face him once more. “Just remember that you can bite me whenever you need to.”

 

Taiga almost had to laugh on that honest offer, because he really meant what he said that was for sure and he didn’t mean it in a teasing way.

 

“Remind me of it when I am too stubborn to do so,” he answered with a smile and turned away before he could get weak and take his offer right away.

***

 

After hours of strolling through the streets, Taiga felt like  he had already gotten rid of most of this town’s bad guys as seriously no living soul crossed his way, neither good nor bad. The sun would be up in no time and even though he knew he would get scolded by Hokuto for failing in getting to his prey, he couldn’t from smiling as he jumped up to one rooftop to leave for the clock tower. After all there was still Hokuto’s offer and the younger one would throw himself at him after all if he wouldn’t be able to get a good hunt. Just a few weeks ago he would have gotten extremely outraged if a human offered himself so easily and even dare to tease him the way Hokuto did, but now everything was different, Hokuto was different from other humans after all, at least to him.

 

He was suddenly ripped out of his thoughts when he jumped up to the next roof and a person stood right in front of him. That was the last place he expected someone, but the other one didn’t step out of his way even when Taiga landed right in front of him and couldn’t step back because the roof ended right behind him. For a brief moment they just stared at each other and Taiga scanned the latter carefully. The other one seemed about the same age as Hokuto, with dark brown and short hair, a light smile on his lips. He had his arms crossed to his chest, as if he had waited for Taiga the whole time, but when Taiga’s look finally rested on the latter’s neck he let out a hiss showing his fangs to him threatening and even though the other one didn’t lose his smile he jumped back before Taiga could attack him.

 

“So you didn’t leave the town after all,” Taiga hissed at him.

 

“Why so aggressive? I think we didn’t even met until no, right? How about we introduce ourselves first?” The other one put his arms down, raised one hand to his chest and bowed lightly. “My name is Yugo, nice to meet another family member.”

 

“Don’t dare to compare us, we are not the same.”

 

“Oh, so proud. But it’s your kind who turns us in what we are, so why do you complain about your own creation?”

 

“Sorry, but even though I can turn, I didn’t do so until now. I don’t like the way you are uncontrollable.”

 

“Uncontrollable? Mhhh, says the one who can’t stay away from a certain human.”

 

Taiga tensed immediately on Yugo’s knowing smile, but the other one didn’t seem to have come to attack him, so why did he show up now? On the other hand he couldn’t read another vampire, nor feel a single emotion. Just the bite marks on his neck had revealed his true nature to him. If he really tried to attack him, he couldn’t even be sure of winning, after all he hadn’t have the chance to satisfy his thirst and get back to full strength.

 

“Taiga was it, right? And your human friend is called Hokuto when I remember correctly?”

 

That he knew even their names made him even angrier, because that meant that he had been close enough to hear them. Had he actually been at the clock tower? Had he maybe even seen them at their private moments? Not that he would care for now, he just wanted him to finally leave the town.

 

“You just appeared in front of me to get on my nerves?”

 

“No actually I want to play a game or more let you know that it has already started.”

 

“What are you even talking about?” Taiga asked annoyed ready to just leave, not that he would go back to the clock tower now that he knew that he was still in town. He had to get back to Hokuto as fast as possible. Leaving him alone was making him feel more than uneasy out of a sudden.

 

“Oh you already want to leave?” Yugo asked as Taiga stepped on the edge of the rooftop.

 

“I have no time for your stupid games,” Taiga said impatiently, ready to jump off the roof to rush back to Hokuto, because he was his main priority at the moment. But this time Yugo stepped closer and it made clear that he wouldn’t let him off that easily.

 

“But it is a special kind of hide and seek. It is really interesting.”

 

“Play it on your own then.”

 

Taiga jumped off the roof without a warning, he had definitely enough of the boy’s weird behavior.

 

But unfortunately he didn’t come as far as he wanted as Yugo jumped in front of him at the next corner and slammed him with his face first into the wall. This time it was Yugo who hissed at him, his fangs showing dangerously while he pressed him against the wall with his body weight and trapped his wrists against the wall. As expected Taiga hadn’t enough strength left to fight him off, but that didn’t mean that he would let him do as he pleased.

 

“You really like him, don’t you? It’s just natural for you to be so worried, but he won’t be there anymore when you arrive,” Yugo whispered in his ear and Taiga froze on his words. His thoughts started racing and when he finally got what was going on he struggled as much as he could to get out of the other one’s grip and to his surprise Yugo let go off him. His smile had gotten even more annoying now that he had succeeded in making Taiga more than angry and he let out a dangerous growl before he launched himself at Yugo even though he wasn’t sure if he could do him enough harm to get enough time to get away.

 

“Your damn kind is really the worst,” Taiga shouted at him before he threw him into a pile of wooden pallets which were standing next to a warehouse. The force he used was enough to keep Yugo down for a moment, but he still wouldn’t get far, so he attacked him again, grabbing him by the throat to lift him up. In response Yugo started laughing and it made Taiga freak even more, he punched him in the face so that the latter crushed into the wall behind him, but he still seemed amused by Taiga’s effort.

 

“Why are you not fighting back?”

 

“Why should I? I did was I was told and I was just told that everything is over already.”

 

“You were told? By who? What-” Taiga chocked on his own words as he realized that he had underestimated the situation completely. This time he didn’t spend Yugo any attention at all anymore as he dashed away from the boy who was still laughing.

 

“Looking forward to a long hide and seek with you,” he yelled after him, but Taiga needed to focus on getting back to Hokuto as fast as possible. It couldn’t be true, how couldn’t he have noticed? Through Yugo’s words Taiga had thought that another turned vampire was in town, but his last statement had made him realize that he faced someone even worse, his own kind! The only vampire who could communicate telepathic was the one who turned the other one after all.

 

Taiga let out an outraged scream as he jumped up to the rooftops again to be faster. Sure he wouldn’t have been able to sense them anyways, but he felt so useless for not even realizing that there had been two instead of one, while the other two had spied on them the whole time.

 

As he jumped down right in front of Hokuto’s house he almost broke the door out of its angles as he stormed inside. “HOKUTO!” He shouted out for him right away, but he didn’t even have to look into the other rooms. He was gone!

 

There was nothing unusual, nothing out of place, nothing indicating any kind of fight. He swirled around and rushed back out to the streets. For a moment he tried to calm down as much as possible before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting his instincts take over, but it was no use. There was not even a faint scent of Hokuto’s sweet blood nor any other humans in town which seemed to have had an encounter with the other vampires. The whole town was quiet and so the scream Taiga let out echoed in the empty streets louder than ever, but he couldn’t care less. His time of hiding in the shadows was over.

 

“You want to play hide and seek? Then be prepared to get ripped apart when I find you,” Taiga growled dangerously before he vanished into the night. This game had just started and he would follow them to the end of the world to get Hokuto back.

 

***

 

He didn’t give up, never once he had even thought about giving up, but that didn’t change the fact how time passed unstoppable and then the time came when he couldn’t decide anymore if he still wanted to find him or not, because he was afraid of what would await him if he kept searching. So with the centuries passing his search changed from searching for the only person he ever fell in love with, to searching for those who dared to take him away from him, to rip them apart when he finally found them. Revenge and range had made him going while the world changed around him and he had no intention to hide again and let the eras change without him. He had learnt to live among all those humans without being discovered once. Especially the new era he found himself in was quite helpful for him to maintain a low profile. Who would look at him questioning just because of his red eyes, blond hair and pale skin, when next to him girls with bright pink hair and boys with bright blue contact lenses were walking?

 

He stopped at the Shibuya crossing in front of him, watching all those naive humans while they passed by, laughing and chatting, not knowing of the dark which surrounded them. For weeks now he had walked around Tokyo, trying to get any hints of other vampires around, but with so many people around it was more than hard to find them. And the few he had found over the centuries hadn’t had any useful information for him. But something had made him come back to this place more often than to the other places around Tokyo. Maybe the fact that a lot of young people came here made him hope to find them sooner. The humans disappeared from the crossing again and the cars started moving. Taiga looked up at the big screens in front of him with a lot of different commercials showing. He still found it funny how life had changed in just a few centuries. For him it was a short time indeed, but for the humans it was long. Generation after generation had built this new society which seemed as carefree as never before.

 

“You would have liked it here,” Taiga let out as the humans started walking again as the traffic light switched to green and suddenly he heard people laughing and saw them pointing to the sky. As he lifted his head a snowflake fell on his face, then another one. Right it was winter already, he had totally lost track of the seasons. He closed his eyes and let his memories take over him for a moment. Remembering how he walked around town with Hokuto, learning about humans while teaching him about vampires. The first snow they saw together, their first night they spent together, all those precious memories made his heart fell heavy, even though he couldn’t understand how as it wasn’t beating after all.

 

“I need you to explain to me what this pain is,” Taiga whispered as he put one hand up to his chest. He took a deep breath, ready to keep going, when a long forgotten scent filled his body like a huge fire spreading through his veins. It ripped him out of his thoughts violently and when he scanned his surroundings he had to try hard to keep calm and concentrate. Yes there were hundreds of people in front of him, but there was just one in the world carrying this scent. He scanned his surrounding fast and precisely, no sound, no face would go passed him without notice and then he finally spotted a familiar face. On the other side of the crossing, passing by like it would be just a daily routine walk for him. It was Yugo. He didn’t even realize that Taiga had spotted him, how should he? He couldn’t sense him and it was the scent of Hokuto’s blood which had made Taiga find him, but the person he was looking for so desperately was of course not with him. Just the fact that the scent of his blood remained around him made Taiga’s blood boil in range. He had never felt so much heat gathering in his cold body as at that moment.

 

When Yugo was about to disappear between all the people Taiga dashed forward, fighting his way over the crossing. Even if he would lose sight of him, he wouldn’t lose track of that scent. He was so close to get his revenge, nothing could stop him now! As expected he really lost sight of him after a moment, but the scent was so intense that it was almost like an invisible rope he could take hold of and pull himself closer to the boy with every step.

 

When he had finally reached the other side of the crossing and the people got less he started running, disappearing in one of the side alleys which were leading away from the noisy center and soon he found himself in between normal apartment buildings.

 

The scent got more intense out of a sudden, but he couldn’t clearly spot the exact direction anymore so when he ran into the next small alley between the back of two buildings he stopped for a moment.

 

“I won’t let you get away a second time,” Taiga growled to himself and clenched his fists with so much force that they started shaking.

 

“No worries, I am not running away.”

 

Taiga swirled around and found Kochi a few meters away from him, still the same mocking smile on his face which he had shown him centuries ago. “I am actually impressed that you were still searching and that you even managed to find me.”

 

“You started this ridiculous game! Are you getting scared now, that you are going to lose?” Taiga asked in a dangerous voice and bended his knees a little bit before he let out a hiss with his fangs showing to the other one, but Kochi didn’t seem scared at all.

 

“I told you this is hike and seek, sure you found me, but like this you had to get out of your hiding place as well. Who said that there was no other catcher?”

 

Taiga didn’t need long to get the meaning of that, but it had been already too late. Someone grabbed him from behind and before he could even try to get out his grip the other one buried his teeth in Taiga’s neck making him scream out.

 

Taiga slashed around trying to get away, but it was already too late and he felt how the other one’s poisoning took over his body. Poisoning a human would just make him forget about getting bitten in the first place, poisoning another vampire could have several effects, depending on what the other one was up to and if it was a turned vampire or not. The other one’s intention was to weaken Taiga as much as possible that was for sure and he had succeeded. Taiga escaped a curse as he fell to his knees when the other one released him. His body was shaking violently, but he couldn’t get up again. Kochi stepped in front of him and Taiga tried to reach out for him, but his surrounding started spinning and he couldn’t even stretch out his arm anymore. He saw how the other one stepped next to Kochi, but his view was already too blurry to clearly see him. What he could still see was how the stranger grabbed Kochi by the chin and gave him a rough kiss which Kochi responded to right away. When they backed off again they looked down at Taiga and their mocking laughter was the last he heard before blacking out.

 

***  


The first thing he recognized when he regained consciousness was the silence surrounding him. He was sure that he wasn’t out for long, but wherever they had brought him it was far away enough to even shut out the noises of this busy city even to his sensitive ears. Maybe it was a really deep basement in an office building, he wasn’t sure. The next thing he realized made him finally open his eyes and he tried to put his feet to the ground to stand properly, because until now he had been more or less hanging on his wrists. A groan escaped him as he tried to get up in a proper standing position, but his body still felt too weak to gain him that wish and he sank down a little bit again, resulting with a painful yank on his wrists. He looked up at the chains around them and as expected they had damaged his skin pretty badly by now with his body weight pulling on them. It wasn’t such a big deal, because they would heal in no time, but the fact that he was chained to the wall and wounded, made his chances of an escape more than small.

 

For now he tried to calm down and scanned the room. It was extremely spacious, but there was almost nothing in it. As expected it seemed like the basement of a building with some pipes under the ceiling and a few tanks and boxes in one corner. The only furniture in the room was a massive wooden table with just one chair next to it. Both seemed like they belonged neither in this century, nor in this country. The chair had a really expensive looking red fabric coating with the color being faded out a little bit already, but it was as massive as the table and the armrests as well as the backrest had small ornaments carved inside the wood. The way it looked like a throne it almost made Taiga laugh.

 

His attention was caught by something else the next moment and he took a deep breath when the same scent made his body go crazy again and it didn’t take long until he heard footsteps and then voices.

 

He looked at the metal door at the end of the room and when it opened Kochi stepped in first and when he realized that Taiga was already awake again he seemed more than pleased about it. “Oh I guess we can play again sooner than I expected,” he said mocking and was about to approach Taiga, but a hand landed on his shoulder and held him back.

 

“Give him a moment to relax, would you? He is our guest after all.”

 

Taiga escaped a disbelieving chuckle on that and finally their eyes met for the first time when the other one looked over to him.

 

“So you are the one who let his creation run wild,” Taiga blamed him without any fear. The other one was way taller than him, but his appearance was younger than his, which was not unusual under their kind. Their actual age and the way they looked weren’t in any way related.

 

“Oh such a harsh tone and that even without a proper greeting,” the other one answered with a teasing smile and it was clear that he was more than aware of his advantage at the moment, but that wasn’t all that caught Taiga’s attention. There seemed something else, something that was shining in his eyes as if he couldn’t wait to hurt Taiga even more even though he wasn’t sure how he was planning to do so, because sure he could kill him, after all as another vampire he had the power to do so, but why making him follow them until here if they were planning to just kill him in the end? Something told him that this wasn’t what he was planning.

 

“Let me introduce myself first,” the other one started as he walked up to Taiga while Kochi went over to the table and instead of sitting on the chair he stepped next to it with his arms on his back. “My name is Jesse and as you definitely know by now I am Kochi’s master.”

 

“Master? What a high and mighty way to speak of yourself. So you have poisoned him so that he is following you?”

 

On that Jesse escaped a chuckle before he turned towards the chair, but turned towards Kochi before sitting down.

 

“No, this boy is following me on his free will and is free to leave whenever he wants to.”

 

“But that day will never come,” Kochi replied right away with an intense stare into the other one’s eyes. Jesse formed a kind of satisfied smile on that statement and pulled Kochi closer with his hand around the boy’s neck giving him a hungry kiss.

 

Taiga wasn’t really surprised about their relationship. After all it wasn’t uncommon for a turned vampire to fall for his creator or to be forced to do so. Turning the bitten one into a slave was what a few pure vampires found pleasure in after all.

 

Jesse released the other one out of his grip fast and sat down on the chair, crossing his legs and resting his chin on his palm with his elbow resting on the armrest. Yes his attitude was seriously turning this chair into a throne and Taiga clicked his tongue before he closed his eyes for a moment and dropped with his back against the wall.

 

“And now what? You keep me here to mock me for eternity for winning your stupid game?”

 

“Oh the game is still not over,” Kochi let out as he sat down on the armrest of Jesse’s chair and the latter moved one arm around the boy’s hips right away.

 

“What do you mean?” Taiga asked annoyed, but Kochi exchanged a knowing look with his master, but Jesse seemed unsure if he should answer or not and it made Taiga growl at them. On that Jesse raised an eyebrow at him in amusement while Kochi seemed to feel more than offended by his sudden threat.

 

“You still dare to threaten us even in your situation?” Kochi asked indignant and stood up to walk up to Taiga.

 

Taiga yanked on the chains and leant forward as Kochi approached him and even though he knew he couldn’t really harm him at the moment he hissed at him again, but this time Kochi reacted with showing his fangs as well and he shoved Taiga back into the wall.

 

“Know your position!” He scolded him, but the next moment Taiga kicked him into the stomach without any warning and Kochi gasped when he was forced to take a few steps back.

 

“And you should know your limits,” Taiga responded calmly, but Kochi roared the next moment and jumped on Taiga who had no time to kick him this time and Kochi slammed his head against the wall once before he grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head to the side.

 

“Kochi.”

 

Jesse hadn’t shouted at him, he hadn’t even raised his voice, he had just said his name, but it was enough for the other one to freeze on the spot. Sure he couldn’t poison Taiga, because a turned vampire didn’t have that ability, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t hurt him pretty badly if he bit him, but just as the tip of his fangs had touched Taiga’s skin he had stopped and with an annoyed growl he released Taiga and stepped back. Both pierced each other with a death glare until Jesse cleared his throat and Kochi finally went back to him.

 

“Didn’t I tell you to not be this harsh to him?” Jesse scolded him, but still kept a faint smile on his lips on which Kochi proceeded to sit down on his lap and the other didn’t protested at all.

 

“Sorry, I just don’t like his attitude.”

 

On that Taiga escaped another noise, which could almost count as laughter, but even though Kochi turned towards him with a threatening glare again he didn’t try to attack him.

 

“How about you get our little surprise ready instead of wasting your time with these ridiculous violent actions?” Jesse asked him and suddenly Kochi’s eyes filled with a weird excitement and he cupped Jesse’s face to give him another kiss before he got up.

 

“I’ve waited for this so long,” Kochi let out in some kind of anticipation and turned towards Taiga with a dangerous lopsided smirk before he left the room without another word.

 

“Excuse his short temper, I guess you know how hard it is to tame turned ones,” Jesse apologized while he rested both elbows on his knees and put his chin on the back of his hands looking at Taiga with an almost playful gaze.

 

“I would say you are really good in taming him in your own twisted way, even without poisoning him,” Taiga admitted, not that it was supposed to be a compliment.

 

“I guess we both have a special taste when it comes to our choice of partners,” Jesse let out teasingly and Taiga tensed immediately giving another yank to the chains even though he had tried to hold back to not hurt himself even more.

 

“Oh sorry, did I say something offending?”

 

Instead of an answer a growl escaped Taiga on which Jesse raised an eyebrow at him and got up from his chair, approaching him with slow steps and his hands on his back.

 

“I kind of agree with Kochi about not liking your attitude, you really don’t know your place.”

 

“And you don’t know what will happen to you as soon as I get a grip on your throat,” Taiga threatened him, but Jesse was a lot calmer than Kochi, so even though he was standing right in front of him, he didn’t lift a hand on him.

 

“To be honest, I feel a little bit sorry,” Jesse started, but Taiga didn’t buy a word he was saying. “Kochi was the one who had set eyes on you and your little friend. He was bored by the humans and hadn’t met another vampire except for me until then, so he got more than excited. He followed you two around and told me with pure excitement what he had seen each time. But then his excitement changed...into jealousy.”

 

Taiga didn’t even know what to reply, because it sounded more than ridiculous to him, after all he had Jesse by his side and their feelings were more than even as it seemed, so why feeling jealous?

 

“Humans are fragile and still you were able to keep calm enough to have him close, as close as another vampire would never get, except of course it was for the sake of feeding from that human. But you showed Kochi a way of turning those boring humans into something interesting. Unfortunately as a turned one he will never be able to have that kind of patience.”

 

“And so instead of just being happy about being able to spend eternity with you, he decided to make sure that I would do so alone, just because he was jealous!” He spat the last words into Jesse’s face and the other one didn’t even seem offended by it.

 

“Can you blame him? He knows how it is to be human and still he will never be allowed to get intimate with another human again, because I was egoistic and too weak to stop myself.”

 

His last words came out in a low voice and as if he hadn’t even planned on saying them. Taiga could see a sudden change on his face and it slowly dawned on him that they weren’t as different as he thought.

 

“You fell in love with him when he was still human,” Taiga concluded and the way Jesse turned suddenly away from him and went back to the chair made clear that he was right. “But you weren’t able to keep calm around him, so in the end you decided to turn him and now you are granting him every little wish to feel better about what you have done.”

 

He had hit right again and Jesse’s look fell on the floor as he circled around the table, but then he closed his eyes for a moment and suddenly his walls were up again.

 

“He wanted to play a game and who am I to refuse him that pleasure?”

 

“Feeling pleasure about killing an innocent human? Pathetic!”

 

This time he had hit a nerve, because Jesse growled at him dangerously, but before he could even think about losing it, they both looked over to the door. Jesse with a mocking smile and Taiga in slight panic. With Kochi coming back the scent got stronger again, but more than before or were his senses deceiving him, because he was feeling so weak? And he also realized that it were two people approaching.

 

“Yes killing an innocent human might be a pathetic act,” Jesse said and turned towards Taiga with a weird smile as the door opened and when Taiga’s look fell on the person entering behind Kochi, his whole world stopped for a moment as his look fell on Hokuto, as young and beautiful as on the first day they had met. “But turning him to present him to you centuries later is brilliant, isn’t it?”

 

The feeling of thousands of needles piercing though Taiga’s body hit him as Hokuto stepped into the room even further and no he hadn’t imagined it, the scent of his blood had become stronger. Even though they had turned him it had remained, but it seemed like nothing else had made it through the progress. As their eyes met Taiga felt the need to hold his breath even though he didn’t breathe in the first place, but looking in Hokuto’s empty eyes made him shiver and then his look fell down on the bite marks on his neck.

 

He closed his eyes, counting the seconds in silence, but after the count of five he finally gave up and with an outraged hiss he turned towards Jesse and Kochi which smiled back at him in pure amusement.

 

“HOW DARE YOU TAKE HIS LIFE AWAY LIKE THIS?” Taiga’s voice was steady and his eyes shining bright red with the rage building up inside of him.

 

“Alone to see you freak like this, it was worth doing it,” Kochi let out playfully as he walked up to Hokuto and threw his hand over his shoulder.

 

“But aren’t you happy to see him again? Look, he is still as beautiful as before,” Kochi said as he moved his fingers over the boy’s cheek.

 

“DON’T TOUCH HIM!”

 

“Oh, do I hear jealousy?” Kochi asked laughing and Taiga wondered if he was even listening to himself. He had been the one acting out of jealousy in the first place, but then he turned towards Jesse who had walked back to his chair to sit down and take a look at everything from a safe distance.

 

“Are you sure that he was the jealous one?” Taiga asked Jesse who tried not to react, but it was obvious that his facade was easily scratched now that he had seen through him already once. “You couldn’t deal with the fact that I succeeded in staying together with Hokuto even with him being human. I succeeded where you failed and you couldn’t deal with that!”

 

“Even if you were right, it doesn’t change the outcome,” Jesse answered as calm as possible.

 

“Can I play with him a little bit? Please?” Kochi asked suddenly, totally carefree. Maybe he didn’t want to see the tension in the room or he didn’t care.

 

“Do as you please,” Jesse let out and waved his hand on which Kochi let out a small excited noise before he pulled Hokuto even closer on which Taiga yanked on the chains again.

 

“You shouldn’t be angry, but thankful, you know? Like this he will be beautiful forever and look how obedient he is,” Kochi added as he moved his hand up to his face again and made him look at him. Taiga let out a gasp as Kochi leant forward and gave Hokuto a short kiss and even though it was so short that there was not even the chance for Hokuto to struggle, Taiga was sure that he wouldn’t or more like he couldn’t!

 

“You poisoned him,” Taiga let out in a low voice as if the truth would go away if no one would hear his words, but of course Jesse had heard him and the smile on his lips showed him that he was right.

 

“He will do whatever we say,” Kochi said as he moved behind Hokuto and leant closer to his ear. “Why don’t you give your lover a proper greeting?” Kochi whispered into Hokuto’s ear and the boy’s eyes shot up at Taiga. When he started moving towards him, Taiga didn’t know how to react. He wasn’t afraid, at least not of Hokuto himself, but definitely of the way his skin would feel like when he touched him, how he wouldn’t feel his heart beating anymore nor his breath on his face when he was close.

 

Seeing Hokuto’s empty eyes as he stopped right in front of him made the anger inside of Taiga reach his peak. He felt like the worst person on the planet from one moment to the other, knowing that he had failed in keeping him safe.

 

“I’m so sorry that I couldn’t protect you,” Taiga let out in a low voice, but Hokuto didn’t show any reaction. When he suddenly moved and grabbed Taiga by the hair, the older one flinched and tried to back off, but Hokuto’s strength had increased so much that he wasn’t sure anymore if he wasn’t even stronger than him now. But surprise was written all over his face when Hokuto didn’t attack, but kissed him instead. On the other hand Kochi had told him to give him a proper greeting and even though he was under their control, his feelings would remain the same, so for him this was a proper greeting.

 

Taiga would have loved to give in to his kiss, but he knew that it was wrong. This wasn’t how their reunion was supposed to be. Two cold pairs of lips moving forced against each other wasn’t how he wanted this to end.

 

Hokuto backed off before Taiga could even think of another move, but kept him close and Taiga took his scent in with a deep breath. “Your blood still has the same sweet scent,” Taiga whispered and for a split second Hokuto’s look changed and his grip tightened around him.

 

When Kochi stepped next to them though Taiga focused on him instead and hissed at him when he put his hand on Hokuto’s shoulder.

 

“Oh, what’s with that attitude? Not happy that I gave you your lover back?” Kochi moved his hand to Hokuto’s chin to make him look at him and when he showed his fangs to Hokuto the latter did the same, letting a hiss escape his lips towards Kochi while doing so and the latter raised an eyebrow, obviously surprised by his behavior.

 

“Getting rebellious now? And here I wanted to show your lover how beautiful your fangs are,” Kochi said as he looked over to Taiga again with a lopsided smile, but the latter was looking at Hokuto instead.

 

“As beautiful as I expected them to be,” Taiga said even though his words were just meant for Hokuto. Kochi couldn’t hold back a proud laughter though and then he leant closer to Hokuto’s ear to whisper into it.

 

“How about you let him feel them?”

 

Taiga yanked on the chains on that, but Kochi just stepped away with a mocking smile as Hokuto’s eyes wandered towards Taiga’s throat.

 

“No, Hokuto! Stop!” Taiga tried to make him stop, but he couldn’t really get himself to fight Hokuto off with full strength and it wasn’t like Hokuto could do big damage by biting him, at least not if Kochi didn’t tell him to rip his throat apart and he doubted that this was what he aimed for. But seeing how Hokuto moved on whatever they ordered him to do, made it hard for Taiga not to yell at him to snap out of it.

 

Hokuto pushed him against the wall when he tried to somehow shift away from him and pulled on his hair so that his neck was widely exposed to him. When his lips touched Taiga’s skin he shivered, the cold lips moving on his cold skin feeling so wrong.

 

“Hokuto…” Taiga let out in a weak voice, but before he could say something else he chocked when Hokuto buried his fangs in his neck. He wouldn’t gain anything from biting him, because as a turned one he couldn’t poison him neither satisfy his thirst with his blood. The only reason behind it was for Kochi and Jesse to see Taiga falling into despair even more.

 

“Damn I should have taped this,” Kochi said after a moment as he moved back to Jesse and sat down on his lap right away, giving him a greedy and rushed kiss.

 

“You really like it to bring despair upon other people, don’t you?”

 

“I like everything when you join me for it,” Kochi admitted his hands slipping under the other one’s shirt and Jesse gave him a lopsided smile before he pulled him down for another kiss.

 

If Taiga wouldn’t be so distracted by his own situation he would have made a snarky comment on their public making out attitude, but Hokuto buried his teeth even deeper in his neck the next moment and Taiga escaped a groan on the pain. He wouldn’t try to attack Hokuto, that was for sure, but now that the other two were way too busy with themselves no one really bothered giving Hokuto any order to stop, so it was up to Taiga to somehow reach him.

 

“After I held back so often and refused to drink from you over and over again, isn’t it absurd how we ended up this way around?” Taiga let out while trying hard to keep his voice steady, but to his luck Hokuto finally backed off on his words. He moved his lips away from his neck, but stayed close, so close that it was hard for Taiga to look into his eyes. The other one licked his lips, but remained silent again as if he was waiting for another order, which was of course not coming, because Kochi was busy getting his hands into Jesse’s pants.

 

Suddenly Hokuto escaped a weird sound and he clenched his fists in the fabric of Taiga’s shirt. He closed his eyes for a moment and Taiga could feel how his hands started shaking.

 

“Hokuto?” Taiga asked in a low voice, not wanting to drag the others’ attention back to them. Without a warning Hokuto sliced with his fingernails over his own neck and Taiga bit his lip as a small stream of blood ran down to his collarbone. Once more he looked over to the other two, but even through the scent of fresh blood they didn’t get distracted. After all it was just the blood of another vampire, but to Taiga it was still special.

 

“Still as sweet as I remember it,” Taiga said while he dropped with his back against the wall at the same time, bringing more distance between them. He could already feel how his body reacted to it and screamed at him to taste it again. Hokuto stepped even closer leaving no space for Taiga to back off to and suddenly one of his hands was around Taiga’s hips and pulled him closer while he moved his lips towards his ear.

 

“I told you that you can always bite me,” Hokuto said in an emotionless voice on which Taiga closed his eyes on the familiar yet way different sound of his voice. It was hard to concentrate now that he was so close to him again, but Hokuto escaped another pained noise before he wrapped his other arm around Taiga as well as if he tried to keep sane through the body contact. And that was when Taiga’s mind finally caught up to what Hokuto had said. He had been so shocked and so distracted from the fact itself that Hokuto had been turned and was under Jesse’s control that he had totally forgotten that he could change that. Jesse and Kochi had forgotten as well as it seemed or more like they didn’t care the way they were tangled with Kochi being almost ready to just strip both of them out the clothes right here and now.

 

“Didn’t expect you to become such a strong vampire,” Taiga admitted as he smiled proudly and even though he couldn’t see Hokuto’s face he could hear the low chuckle next to his ear. That was what he had seen in his eyes before and why he was suddenly acting so weird. He had succeeded in ripping himself out of Jesse’s control and that was something the fewest vampires could do. And he was even able to give Taiga the hint he needed to turn this situation around and now he wouldn’t wait any longer. “This better works!”

 

This time it was Taiga who bit Hokuto and the younger one tried hard not to let a single sound escape his mouth, so that they wouldn’t get discovered before the process was done. Taiga concentrated as much as possible after all it was his first time poisoning another vampire. He had explained it to Hokuto back in his human days, but had somehow forgotten about it himself, with rage clouding his mind over the last centuries. He could overpower Jesse if he was able to get Hokuto under his control. It wasn’t that difficult, he just needed a little bit time and more control over his own powers than Jesse and something told him that he definitely had that.

 

“What the hell? There we are not spending attention for a moment,” Kochi suddenly yelled at them and Taiga looked up at him as he jumped up from Jesse’s lap and approached them with fast steps. Jesse didn’t even look as if he minded, it even seemed like he would have liked to stop Kochi, but he didn’t interfere as the other one tried to get Taiga and Hokuto away from each other.

 

Kochi let out an outraged hiss towards Taiga as he grabbed him by the hair and tried to pull him back, but Hokuto had moved his hands up to Taiga’s shoulder, helping him to stay in place.

 

“I command you to let go of him,” Kochi said towards Hokuto, but the latter didn’t react. “DO AS I SAY!” Kochi yelled at him and forced them finally apart, slamming Taiga back into the wall.

 

What he hadn’t expected though was Hokuto grabbing him by the throat and slamming him into the ground the next moment.

 

“KOCHI!” Jesse was up the next second, but instead of attacking him, Hokuto got back to Taiga and ripped the chains out off the wall to everyone’s surprise.

 

“Wow, you are seriously stronger than I would have expected,” Taiga let out with a faint smile as Hokuto held him on the shoulders so that he wouldn’t lose his balance. But instead of answering he pulled him up and gave him an eager kiss and Taiga responded right away this time. He threw his arms around the latter’s neck and deepened the kiss as Hokuto’s hands moved to his face, caressing his cheeks. Sure he had lost the warmth of his body, but that didn’t apply for the warmth of his heart as it seemed. Taiga smiled against his lips before he backed off and cupped Hokuto’s face with his hands.

 

“I still can’t believe that I got you back,” Taiga let out in a slightly shaking voice and Hokuto gave him a bright smile. Seeing his fangs which he had had as a human as well was making Taiga feel extremely nostalgic, but the outraged scream next to them ripped them out of their thoughts and made clear that they had to postpone their reunion celebration for a while.

 

Jesse had helped Kochi up again and even though he tried to hold him back he dashed forward, jumping at Hokuto right away. Taiga tried to attack him as he had tackled Hokuto to the ground, but Jesse was suddenly next to him and pushed him away from both.

 

“You’ve ruined my game, now you’re going to pay for it,” Kochi yelled at Hokuto, trying to get his fangs in his skin, but Hokuto was strong enough to at least keep the fight even for now.

 

“Jesse, stop him! You are the only one who can end this nonsense without us ripping each other apart and I see no reason to do so!” Taiga begged the other one as he cornered him at the wall. He was still too weak to fight properly, but with Jesse as his opponent he had a good chance of talking the situation out instead of settle it through a fight.

 

“You want to tell me that you wouldn’t hunt us down after what we have done to you over the last centuries? After stripping you of your happiness for so long and destroying what you have fought for? Don’t make me laugh!”

 

“Sure I could get revenge and I would be a liar if I said I wasn’t angry, but damn it I have him back and all I want is leave together with him, don’t you get it?”

 

Kochi’s outraged scream distracted Jesse for a moment and when they looked over to them, Hokuto had succeeded in getting the upper hand, but instead of attacking he just tried to hold the other one down. Jesse made an attempt to move over to them, but on that Taiga stepped forward as well and Jesse turned back to him instead.

 

“Look, you want to protect Kochi and I want to protect Hokuto! The only problem is that our methods are different. You let Kochi run wild over all those centuries, because you thought it would make you feel better and somehow ease the burden of your weakness. But fact is that you turned him!”

 

Jesse growled at him dangerously, but still didn’t attack. Jesse had opened up to him earlier already and he just needed the last input to finally make him realize how stupid both their behaviors were. “You told me yourself that you didn’t have to poison him! He loved you already when he was human, as Hokuto loved me as well! Kochi will follow you to the end of the world, don’t you get it?”

 

“No you don’t get it! He decided to crush your happiness because he still felt restless about becoming a vampire, because he still couldn’t deal with the fact that I have stripped him of his human happiness.”

 

“Bullshit!” Taiga yelled at him and Jesse was taken aback by his sudden outburst. “You are telling that to yourself, but have you ever asked him? You are both so focused on making up for something that you feel guilty for that you lose sight of each other!”

 

“You know nothing about us,” Jesse shot back at him and knowing that Taiga was close to breaking through his mental defense he finally attacked. Taiga tried to get away instead of countering his attacks, because he wouldn’t stand a chance for long, but Jesse was faster and got a grip on him fast closing one arm around his throat while trapping one arm on his back. Taiga tried to loosen his grip on his throat, but in response his grip got even tighter and knowing that he could rip him apart any time now, Taiga didn’t even dare to say anything.

 

“If you hurt him, I am going to make sure that your little pet pays for it,” Hokuto shouted at Jesse as he had finally pinned Kochi to the ground, sitting with his knee on his back and holding his arms on his back. When he used more force on his arms Kochi escaped a scream, but in response Jesse did the same with Taiga’s arm who gasp on the sudden pain.

 

“So I guess we have reached a dead end,” Taiga dared to interfere again as they all froze for a moment. Could we try talking about this once more instead?”

 

Kochi tried to struggle again instead of answering on which Hokuto pulled on his arm again and he let out a pained yelp.

 

“Kochi, stop!”

 

It seemed to even surprise Jesse himself that he had said that, but he had obviously realized that Taiga was right. Like this they would end up with losses on both sides.

 

“No, I am not going to let them get away like this.” Kochi yelled.

 

“Why not? How did you think this game would have ended? You wanted to keep us both here and please yourself over our suffering?” Hokuto asked him and Taiga felt how Jesse tensed behind him.

 

“Kochi, you started this game not because you felt bored, but because you wanted to distract Jesse from his guilt, right?” Taiga asked directly this time on which Kochi looked up at him almost shocked before his eyes wandered to Jesse who looked back at him in confusion.

 

“What are you talking about? Jesse and I are the perfect team! You were just unlucky to cross our way when I was in the mood to mess with someone.”

 

“Why are you so afraid of telling the truth?” Taiga tried again, seeing that even Kochi was about to crumble by now. Of course he couldn’t tell if he was lying, but he didn’t need to feel their emotions to be able to read their faces and they were way too obvious by now. “You know that Jesse still blames himself for turning you, that he hates himself for taking your life just because he was too weak to-”

 

“JESSE ISN’T WEAK!” Kochi screamed suddenly, so loud that Hokuto flinched and almost let go of him. Jesse had also loosened his grip on Taiga, but the latter new better than use the chance to free himself. Staying calm instead would solve the situation way quieter and with higher chances of them all getting out of there in one piece.

 

“And to prove that you had to show him that others would break if the same happened to them,” Taiga continued and even though Kochi kept screaming at him to stop he just rose his voice in return. “You wanted to show Jesse how I was giving up on finding Hokuto or in the worst case as it happened, that when I continued searching how I wouldn’t be able to handle that he got turned, that I would resent him or would be disgusted by him. But your plan didn’t work and now you fear that Jesse will pull away, because he could feel even guiltier.”

 

“SHUT UP!” Kochi screamed again, but this time his voice broke and he stopped struggling against Hokuto’s grip and rested his forehead against the cold surface of the ground as the first sobs escaped him.

 

“Both of you were so busy with convincing yourselves that everything was alright and that the other person was not at fault for the outcome of your situation that you totally forgot to openly speak with each other.”

 

This time Jesse let go of him completely and when Taiga looked over his shoulder at him he could see the hurt in his eyes. As he started walking over to Kochi, Taiga signaled Hokuto to get off him and so he did. He moved over to Taiga fast and wrapped on hand around his hips to help him stand and to make sure that no one could take him away from him again.

 

“Jesse, you said you let him run wild so he wouldn’t hate you for what you have done, but the only reason Kochi did all the outraged things was because he tried to make you forget about your guilt, because he didn’t find you guilty in the first place.”

 

Taiga felt like he was explaining the easiest outcome of a task to two kids, but they really seemed so lost that they couldn’t even see the most obvious solution anymore.

 

“Kochi,” Jesse started carefully as he stopped a few steps away from him, but the latter was still not looking up at him. He had moved up to his knees, facing the ground. “Is it true? Did you really think that making others suffer would make me feel better?”

 

Kochi escaped a bitter chuckle on that before he finally dared to look up at the other one with teary eyes. “Stupid, isn’t it? But I didn’t know what else to do. Damn I loved you so much back then and I still do and I will do so forever! But that day when you lost control and turned me, you changed…” Kochi shook his head and stayed silent for a moment while Jesse dared to make another step towards him. “It seemed like you weren’t even listening to anything I was saying anymore, no matter how often I told you that I was okay with becoming a vampire as long as I could spend the rest of eternity with you. When you started drowning in your bitterness and I freaked the first time, killing innocent people, you scolded me so baldy, do you remember?”

 

Jesse nodded, but didn’t interrupt him. Taiga and Hokuto also just waited patiently, there was no reason anymore to try and escape now.

 

“I felt so happy on that day, because you finally talked to me the same way you did when I was still human. You spent me your full attention, forgetting about everything that was hunting you. That was when I realized that if I kept dragging your attention away from those thoughts and kept you busy, you would stop feeling guilty and then we happened to stumble over those two and for me it seemed like the perfect plan to finally make you rest assure that you weren’t weak and that I was never and will never hate you for turning me...but my plan failed.” Kochi punched the ground and gritted his teeth, but the next moment Jesse had made another step and fell to his knees, pulling Kochi into a tight hug.

 

“You are such an idiot!” Jesse scolded him. “I am such an idiot! If I would have known the reasons for it, I would have stopped you sooner! You suffered even more through my stubbornness and unawareness of your pain. I am so sorry.”

 

“Idiot, I told you that you don’t have to feel sorry,” Kochi said as he finally hugged him back, grabbing the back of his shirt with shaking hands and burying his face on the other one’s shoulder. “This was the reason for all this! To make you realize that there is nothing to feel sorry for, so please stop apologizing!”

 

Another sob escaped Kochi as Jesse pulled away and cupped Kochi’s face with his hands and placed a kiss on his forehead. “Then just let me say it once more, okay? To make up for all this time I was too stupid and too stubborn to accept that I haven’t done a bad thing with turning you.” Kochi didn’t want to interrupt him, but he nodded on his last words to make sure that he really got that he didn’t do anything wrong with turning him. “I am sorry, not for turning you, but for not listening to you. I am sorry not for wanting to spend eternity with you, but for neglecting you for so long while drowning in my own despair.” This time Jesse gave him a short kiss on the lips, but pulled back fast as Kochi was still struggling with getting a grip again.

 

“And I am more than sorry for dragging you into this,” Jesse said as he stood up and turned towards Taiga and Hokuto. He bowed deeply and Kochi just remained on the floor and put his hands and head to the ground. “I won’t ask you for forgiveness, because we caused damage beyond return. Instead I want to thank you, for trying to understand us and even solving a problem you shouldn’t have been part of from the beginning and that even though we stole centuries of your happiness and freedom and even dared to end a human life.”

 

Hokuto remained tense, but Taiga smiled at them. “I told you before already that I didn’t want to harm you, all I wanted was getting Hokuto back and because you didn’t take that chance away from me, I have no reason to hold a grudge against you.”

 

“And you should know that I am the same as Kochi,” Hokuto finally spoke making Jesse and Kochi look up at him. “I am angry at you for messing up my life, for taking me away from Taiga and enslaving me for centuries! But I am not angry at you for turning me, because as Taiga just said, like this you gave us the chance to find back together and we did!”

 

Kochi tried to voice out an apology as well, but half of it got swallowed by another sob and Jesse crouched down next to him again stroking gently over his back.

 

“You still have another eternity in front of you, how about you use it this time to make up for your mistakes?” Taiga said in a calm voice.

 

Jesse nodded with a serious look on his face. “We will. But what about you?”

 

Hokuto and Taiga exchanged a short look before they both smiled.

 

“We are going to continue where we got stopped before. It is not like we are in a hurry anymore,” Hokuto said teasingly as he pulled Taiga closer who gave him a bright smile before he placed a short kiss on his cheek.

 

“Make sure that you listen to each other then and don’t drift apart, but I guess we are the best example of how things shouldn’t go and I have the feeling that you two won’t have to fear to get into a similar situation.”

 

“And if we do, feel free to come back and kick our asses,” Hokuto added on which Taiga pinched him on the shoulder and the latter let out a small whine. “Hey, that hurt. Which is by the way something I really don’t understand. Being invincible was something I was looking forward to when I got turned, but somehow this doesn’t really work the way I wanted it to.”

 

“Sorry to disappoint you, we are not superman,” Taiga explained teasingly before he faced Kochi and Jesse again. Kochi gave him another apologizing look, but it was obvious that the boy had learnt his lesson and would be more careful from now on how to keep Jesse close.

 

“I guess we are free to go then?”

 

“Feel free to do so,” Jesse responded with another light bow while he dragged Kochi up to his feet.

 

“Will you two be alright?” Taiga asked to their surprise and Jesse gave him a brief smile before he squeezed Kochi’s shoulder who tried to smile back at him.

 

“Maybe not right away, but in a while definitely.”

 

“Then this is our farewell, good luck.”

 

Taiga bowed towards them and moved over to the door with Hokuto still helping him to walk. They looked back at the other two once more and Jesse was hugging Kochi, placing another kiss on his hair while Kochi whispered another apology against his chest.

 

Taiga and Hokuto exchanged another smile as they were sure that those two were going to be okay and no threat to them anymore and then they finally left to finally start into their own eternity.

 

***

 

“I see you are taking at least way more care of yourself as back then,” Hokuto said with a whistle on the huge tower mansion they entered after a ten minute walk from the Shinjuku station.

 

“The clock tower was really comfortable for me, you know. But I guess people would call the police if they saw me housing on top of the sky tree or under the rainbow bridge.”

 

On that Hokuto escaped a loud laughter and Taiga had to admit that he had missed his cheerful attitude way more than the scent of his blood. It still felt kind of unreal walking with him through the city as if nothing had happened. They had returned with the first train in the morning and even though it was already getting bright outside there were almost no people on this cold morning.

 

Taiga had asked at least a dozen times on their way back if Hokuto was really okay, but he had stopped when the boy had finally snapped at him. After a regretful moment of silence in the train Hokuto had looked around and as he was sure that no one was spending them any attention, he gave Taiga a rushed kiss, apologizing for worrying him so much.

 

They had spent the rest of the way in silence, but now that they were in the elevator to the 24th floor to Taiga’s apartment, Hokuto seemed suddenly unsettled, but Taiga didn’t want to ask him again or the boy might freak at him completely.

 

Another whistle escaped Hokuto as he walked through the spacious living room and went straight for the balcony from which the whole Shinjuku area was visible.

 

“Damnit, how the heck are you able to pay for such a place? You didn’t kill anyone to be able to live here, did you?” Hokuto asked laughing, but his smile faded a little bit as Taiga leant on the doorframe with a kind of guilty look.

 

“You are kidding me, right?”

 

“I didn’t kill anyone, no. I just used my powers a little bit to make the landlord forget about the rent...every month?” Taiga replied with a sheepish smile on which Hokuto shook his head, but his smile returned and that made Taiga feel relieved again.

 

Hokuto approached him the next Moment and leant with one hand next to his head on the doorframe. The look he carried was something Taiga had never seen on him before and he reached out to touch his cheek intuitively.

 

“How does it feel?” Hokuto asked in a sweet and luring voice and Taiga forgot all those centuries they were apart in an instant.

 

“Cold,” Taiga answered in an innocent voice on which Hokuto chuckled.

 

“Mhh, so even with the same body temperature you can tell the difference.”

 

“How would I be able to forget how warm your body was before?” Taiga moved his other hand up to his chest and closed his eyes. No sound, no movement. It made him shiver, but Hokuto’s hand was on his the next moment, squeezing it. “No reason to feel down. We have a whole eternity together like this.”

 

Taiga nodded, but slid his hand from his cheek down to his neck and when he found the one bite marks that would never disappear he felt a wave of sorrow crushing on him.

 

“I just regret that those aren't mine,” Taiga admitted and Hokuto seemed to understand his struggle and with the next step he closed the distance between them, giving Taiga a long and passionate kiss. He backed off way too fast for Taiga’s liking and he grabbed him by the collar to keep him as close as possible.

 

“By the way, you didn't actually put me under your command earlier while poisoning me, did you?” Hokuto asked, still with a smile, but the worry was all over his face nevertheless.

 

“Sit!”

 

“What?”

 

Taiga formed a teasing lopsided smile as Hokuto finally got that this was the answer he had asked for actually. “Idiot!”

 

“I just thought it might be better to prove to you that I really didn’t do it,” Taiga replied as he moved his pointer finger teasingly over Hokuto’s lips. He tried to pull him into another kiss with his other hand still on his collar, but Hokuto refused to Taiga’s surprise.

 

“Don’t tell me you are not in the mood?” Taiga asked in disbelieve, but something on the latter’s face told him that it wasn’t the case.

 

“I just want to make sure that you know what you are getting yourself into,” Hokuto replied, suddenly his eyes shining in an even brighter red then before.

 

“I would say they didn’t really take good care of you, if they left you thirsty that much.”

 

“No worries, like this it makes everything even more exciting.”

 

“Tell me about it.”

 

Taiga knew the best how it felt to hold back when in need of blood, but in Hokuto’s case it was even more intense. As a turned vampire he was way more uncontrollable than Taiga, but of course the older one didn’t mind.

 

“You think Jesse would dare to interfere?”

 

Hokuto’s sudden worried tone made Taiga hesitate and he needed a moment to get what he meant.

 

“You mean telepathic?”

 

Hokuto nodded, but Taiga shook his head right away and gave him a supporting smile.

 

“Don’t worry, he won’t. After all that happened he wouldn’t try that. He is busy with Kochi for eternity, I am sure of it.”

 

“Also true,” Hokuto let out kind of relieved and Taiga put one hand under his chin to pull him closer.

 

“Now it is just about you and me, so let me see how you can lose control,” Taiga whispered against his lips and even though he couldn’t feel Hokuto’s emotions any more, the shiver which ran through the other’s body reached him like a shockwave. Without another warning Hokuto pushed him roughly against the wall and kissed him again. Even if Taiga wanted to turn the game around he realized already that it would be almost impossible with the strength Hokuto suddenly carried and with which he forced his head to move so that he could get better access. Taiga escaped a low moan which resulted in Hokuto’s hand moving under his shirt right away, not leaving any time for hesitation. But it still took Taiga by surprise as Hokuto backed off and ripped Taiga’s shirt in half.

 

“Will you ever strip me out of my clothes without ruining them?” Taiga teased him, but Hokuto was busy getting out of his own shirt and when he stepped closer he cupped Taiga’s face with one hand under his shin, while the other one already explored his exposed skin.

 

“Just shut up,” he demanded in a low voice and Taiga’s body got filled with another wave of excitement as Hokuto kissed him once more before he moved his lips down to his neck.

 

Taiga responded with his hand slipping in the back of Hokuto’s pants, but the latter didn’t even flinch on the touch, after all their body temperature was even now.

 

Taiga struggled to get free for a moment and Hokuto growled at him dangerously, but that made Taiga suddenly push him away with more force. Hokuto was started for a moment as he hadn’t really thought that Taiga could still keep up with his strength.

 

Taking Hokuto by the wrist Taiga moved towards the next corridor and they entered a spacious bedroom and to Hokuto’s liking an even more spacious bed.

 

“Better than the bed in the clock tower, right?” Taiga asked as he crawled on it and waited impatiently for Hokuto to follow and he didn’t have to wait for long.

 

“I don’t care where it happens as long as it happens with you,” Hokuto admitted as he sat down on Taiga’s lap and gave him another greedy stare before he shoved him down into the covers. Taiga’s fingernails found their way into the latter’s skin as Hokuto bit him in the earlobe and Taiga had to try hard not to chuckle as he could feel how much Hokuto struggled to keep his fangs inside.

 

Taiga made the first move to get out of his pants and as soon as Hokuto noticed it he made sure to strip him out of all his remaining clothes at once and proceeded to do the same before he tried to get back on top of Taiga, but to his surprise he got tackled down the moment he sat down on the bed again. With his wrists suddenly pinned next to his head he looked up at Taiga with a greedy look and the latter leant in for another deep kiss, enjoying his short moment of keeping the upper hand.

 

As expected Hokuto tried right away to get into the lead again, even though Taiga tried to struggle. After a moment where it wasn’t sure who would win the struggle Hokuto got a grip on Taiga’s shoulders and turned them around completely. In response he got a dangerous hiss from Taiga with his fangs showing and instinctively Hokuto hissed back at him showing his own fangs. Silence followed on that. A silence in which Taiga couldn’t get his eyes off Hokuto while he gritted his teeth with his fangs still pointing at him threatening.

 

“They are really beautiful,” Taiga let out in a calm voice which didn’t match the atmosphere at all. He had actually said it before, but with Hokuto not in his right mind at that time he wasn’t sure if he had heart him. And the way Hokuto’s look turned kind of embarrassed the next second, he was happy that he had repeated himself.

 

Realizing that he had startled Hokuto he moved his legs up and closed them around Hokuto’s body and the boy let out a gasp as their erections brushed over each other at the sudden movement.

 

“Show me what else has changed,” Taiga demanded and tugged on Hokuto’s hair to make him come closer again, but this one rough move was all the other one needed to switch back into his playful mood and he moved his hands to Taiga’s hips and pulled him closer without giving him the chance to get close enough to kiss him again.

 

Hokuto shifted his weight to get into a better position and the need in his eyes was already way bigger than his thirst. Which was also why his look turned more than displeased as Taiga held back a moan and bit his lip as he pushed in quite fast, not in the right state at all to bother with preparations. Taiga’s try to play tough made him shift his weight again and grab the older one’s hips to give him a deep firs thrust and this time Taiga threw his head back with a muffled moan under his hand.

 

“Are you getting shy now that you are not the topping one?” Hokuto asked him scolding as he grabbed his wrists hand pinned them over his head with one hand to make sure that he wouldn’t miss any feature of his expression changing when he moved inside of him.

 

Taiga didn’t reply, instead he tried to keep his poker face up which made Hokuto move faster again.

 

“You really want me to get angry, don’t you?”

 

Instead of an answer he took Hokuto by surprise as he moved his head upwards and trapped his underlip between his teeth. Hokuto groaned, but didn’t pull away and after another moment Taiga released him again and liked over his lips afterwards before he let his head drop back onto the sheets with a teasing chuckle.

 

“Getting angry is our way of making it more entertaining.”

 

Of course he didn’t really have to explain that to Hokuto anymore. After all he had been the one teaching him all those emotions.

 

“Screw this,” Hokuto let out as he slipped out again so sudden that Taiga’s mask fell for a moment and he let out a gasp. Without getting the time to comprehend what was going on, Hokuto pulled him up and made him turn around. Taiga got a hold on the bed frame right in time before Hokuto pushed in roughly from behind and almost shoved him off the bed with that movement.

 

With the next thrust his defense broke completely and he let out a deep moan to Hokuto’s obvious satisfaction. The younger one moved his hands teasingly over his abdomen and tights, but left out his crotch on purpose which made Taiga stare at him over the shoulder with a death glare after a while.

 

“Oh how cute, you want to pick a fight now?” Hokuto asked mocking, but he couldn’t deny how much Taiga’s angry glare with his already messy hair strands falling in his eyes turned him on more and made it hard not to lose control.

 

Taiga took him by surprise as he moved one hand to his hair and pulled him to the front so that he could kiss him over his shoulder and Hokuto responded with another thrust and his lips curled up against Taiga’s as they both let out a moan into each other’s mouth. Even though the angle was slightly uncomfortable they remained like this. Not sure if he was able to keep his balance if he would let go with his other hand, he moved his other hand from Hokuto’s hair down to search for his hand. He grabbed him by the wrist and guided it down to his crotch and of course Hokuto got the message, but the question was if he wanted to play nice or not.

 

Taiga was ready to bite him once more if he would pull away again, but to his surprise Hokuto moved his hand on his own and finally reached out for him. With the first long stroke over his full length Taiga broke the kiss trying to keep himself together, because he didn’t want to give in sooner than Hokuto, even though they had both waited way too long already.

 

“How long do you think you can go?” Hokuto whispered in his ear on which Taiga shivered again, his body movement already getting close to a spastic one.

 

“Depends on how long you can hold back.”

 

Hokuto knew what that meant of course and he couldn’t actually wait to get his payback, but just for a while longer he wanted to play with him. He took Taiga’s other hand away from the bed and sat back so that Taiga sat half on his lap, stabilized by one of Hokuto’s hands on his chest, while Taiga had moved one hand to Hokuto’s ass, now groping it shamelessly.

 

“How long do you want me to hold back?” Hokuto asked as Taiga seemed already so close that he tried to take a deep breath, even though he didn’t need to.

 

“Not yet,” he let out almost inaudible as he shot Hokuto another look over the shoulder, but it wasn’t the need which showed in them the most, but some kind of discomfort, but Taiga had surrendered already, so he wouldn’t complain now. Luckily Hokuto could read him perfectly and even though it would throw them back again he did him the favor he was obviously asking for and slipped out once more to let him turn back towards him. But instead of letting him lie down, he pulled him back up on his lap as he entered him again and Taiga closed his arms around the latter’s shoulders the same moment Hokuto’s hand found his arousal again.

 

Once more Taiga backed off to have a better look at Hokuto, whose stare was already burning him as he just waited for him to say what he wanted to hear. This time it was Taiga who moved his lips down to the other one’s neck and he inhaled deeply as the sweet scent of Hokuto’s blood filled his body again, a weird kind of dizziness taking over him. This was exactly what he had needed, the last kick to make his mind go blank and with his fangs coming out without him even being able to control it he moved to Hokuto’s ear.

 

“You can lose control now,” he whispered in a deep voice and clawed his fingers into the latter’s back as he moved faster right away and let out a low and excited chuckle. The pain was the same as before, but with Hokuto’s mind in control over his actions this time, it felt different, more intense. Hokuto’s fangs buried deep in Taiga’s flesh and this time Taiga didn’t try to hold back any noises that escaped him. Totally overwhelmed by the way they were moving roughly against each other with Taiga trying to somehow endure the pain and Hokuto’s mind becoming a blank space through his excitement they both reached their climax already seconds later. Taiga buried his head on the latter’s shoulder while Hokuto backed off right in time to muffle his own moan on Taiga’s skin.

 

After they both had calmed down a little bit, Taiga flinched on the sudden touch of Hokuto’s tongue on his neck. As he realized that he was cleaning up the mess he had produced, Taiga rested his forehead on the latter’s shoulder for another moment.

“I am actually surprised that we managed to end this without ripping the place or each other apart,” Taiga said kind of proud with a light chuckle and the next moment Hokuto moved back and licked his lips once more before he gave him a lopsided smile.  


“Oh I thought I should leave destroying the furniture for round two and breaking you…” Hokuto paused and moved his hand behind Taiga’s head to pull him into another kiss, this time softer and without any intentions of doing more. When he backed off again and gave Taiga another bright smile, the older one felt like he hadn’t even lost him for a single day in his life. He had an eternity after all and the days without Hokuto had gone by as if in trance. Taiga leant in for another short kiss before he let Hokuto continue. “Let me think about breaking you in another life okay? For now you are too precious to be handled that way.”


End file.
